Native Plants
Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?
A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.
Did you know you can access the Native Plant Information Network with your web-enabled smartphone?
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
rate this answer
Friday - August 20, 2004
From: Fredericksburg, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Trees
Title: Small to medium specimen native tree for Texas Hill Country
Answered by: Stephen Brueggerhoff
QUESTION:
Can you recommend a small to med. 'specimen' tree to plant near our patio? Full sun, drought tolerant, interesting during different seasons. Thought about Blanco Crabapple, Rusty Blackhaw, Smoke Tree & Canyon Mock Orange. We have unimproved soil, located in the Texas Hill Country.ANSWER:
The trees that you have suggested are certainly good choices for your location. I can also recommend: Desert Willow, Chilopsis linearis (desert willow), Orchid Tree,Bauhinia lunarioides (Texasplume) and Golden-ball Lead Tree Leucaena retusa (littleleaf leadtree) I recommend browsing to our Hill Country Horticulture webpage, a service provided by our Native Plant Information Network, that enables a robust search by habit and plant requirements that will help you target the right plant for your needs in your eco-type.More Trees Questions
Encouraging branch growth of live oak trees in Austin
February 10, 2009 - I recently had an elm tree cut down that was crowding out 2 live oak trees in my front yard. The oaks have no branches on the sides that were next to the elm. The elm stump is still there. I need to ...
view the full question and answer
Pruning mature cedar elm trees in San Antonio
September 14, 2008 - When is the right time to prune my several mature cedar elm trees? I'm in San Antonio, and they have never been trimmed in the 55 years we have lived in this home. I have several that are at least 7...
view the full question and answer
Photographing and Identifying trees of Long Island
June 01, 2013 - After being in a car accident I got into photography as sports are a distant memory due to my injuries. As a new hobby I thought of taking pictures of trees and then finding out their species name. ...
view the full question and answer
Which is best-Oklahoma Redbud or Texas Redbud in Austin?
March 25, 2010 - I live in Northwest Austin and would like to plant a small redbud tree in my front yard. My yard gets full sun. Which is better - the Texas redbud or the Oklahoma redbud?
view the full question and answer
Problems with native palms in Austin
April 10, 2011 - We had a large variety of California fan palms and blue sabal palms in our yard that were damaged during the last freeze. We found that several of them now have "spear pull," which means we could p...
view the full question and answer
Support the Wildflower Center by Donating Online or Becoming a Member today. |