Ask Mr. Smarty Plants

To save us a whole lot of typing, we recommend you read our How-To Article A Guide to Native Plant Gardening. When  we talk about annual flowers in Texas, we usually refer to them as "wildflowers," since they grow in our soil and our ordinary rainfall and without much benefit from fertilizer; therefore, they are about the best thing you can plant in your garden. They will self-seed, with the ones most suited to the home they have found prospering the most. Another How-To Article you should find interesting is Meadow Gardening. This refers to a much larger installation than you are planning but the basic principles are the same.

So, having answered the part about planting and cultivating with one fell swoop, we will go to our Recommended Species for Central Texas, Narrow our Search by selecting on "herbs" (herbaceous  blooming plants) under General Appearance, "annual" under General Appearance, and list some of our favorites for this part of the state. These will all be native in and around Bexar County, and should do well in your garden. You did not indicate if you would have sun or shade, so if you wish, you can repeat the search, adding Light Requirements to your search. Follow each of our plant links to the page on that plant in our Native Plant Database to learn projected size, amount of sunlight needed, bloom time and color, and get propagation instructions. This is just a sampling, there are other annuals and, of course, you can expand the scope even more by selecting "perennials" under Duration.

Herbaceous Blooming Annuals for San Antonio:

Amblyolepis setigera (huisache daisy)

Centaurea americana (American star-thistle)

Chamaecrista fasciculata var. fasciculata (partridge pea)

Coreopsis tinctoria var. tinctoria (golden tickseed)

Eryngium leavenworthii (Leavenworth's eryngo)

Gaillardia pulchella (firewheel)

Machaeranthera tanacetifolia (tanseyleaf tansyaster)

Monarda fistulosa (wild bergamot)

Phlox drummondii (annual phlox)

Rudbeckia hirta (blackeyed Susan)

Salvia coccinea (blood sage)

Thelesperma filifolium var. filifolium (stiff greenthread)

From our Native Plant Image Gallery:

Amblyolepis setigera

Centaurea americana

Chamaecrista fasciculata var. fasciculata

Coreopsis tinctoria var. tinctoria

Eryngium leavenworthii

Gaillardia pulchella

Machaeranthera tanacetifolia

Monarda citriodora

Phlox drummondii

Rudbeckia hirta

Salvia coccinea

Thelesperma filifolium var. filifolium