Ask Mr. Smarty Plants

There are several tools to help you find your own plants to use for your poolside.  First, you can visit the Texas-Central Recommended page to find a list of more than 150 species native to the area that are commercially available for landscaping.  You can use the NARROW YOUR SEARCH option to select different criteria.  For example, you could select 'Shrub' from GENERAL APPEARANCE and 'Sun - 6 or more hrs' from LIGHT REQUIREMENT.  Here are a few suggestions from that list for shrubs that would do well in the sun:

Chrysactinia mexicana (damianita) is evergreen with yellow flowers and grows to 2 feet.

Anisacanthus quadrifidus var. wrightii (Wright's desert honeysuckle) is deciduous with red flowers and grows from 3 to 5 feet.

Leucophyllum frutescens (Texas barometer bush) is evergreen with pink-lavender flowers and grows 2 to 5 feet tall.

Cercis canadensis var. texensis (Texas redbud) is a deciduous large shrub/small tree with pink spring blossoms that grows 10 to 20 feet.

On the Recommended Species page you will also find a section at the bottom of the page called 'Just for Central Texas'.  You will find several collections there that offer suggestions appropriate for your pool area.  Sun Garden Plants for Central Texas has more than 70 suggestions, some of which also occur in the Texas-Central Recommended list.  Here are a few recommendations from that list:

Conoclinium greggii (Gregg's mistflower) is a perennial up to 2 feet tall with lavender flowers that attract butterflies.

Glandularia bipinnatifida var. bipinnatifida (Dakota mock vervain) is a long-lasting annual up to 12 inches that produces purple blooms most of the year.

Lantana urticoides (West Indian shrubverbena) is a perennial that grows to around 3 feet and has orange and yellow flowers.

Melampodium leucanthum (plains blackfoot) is a perennial that grows to 12 inches and has white flowers with yellow centers for most of the year.

Native Plants for Container Gardens in Central Texas is another list that will have useful recommendations for you.  Again, the plant species overlap with the two other lists mentioned.  Here are a few suggestions:

Dalea greggii (Gregg's prairie clover) is a low-growing (4 to 9 inches) perennial with small purple flowers.

Manfreda maculosa (spice lily) is an evergreen succulent that grows to 1 foot.

Salvia greggii (autumn sage) is an semi-evergreen to evergreen shrub with red flowers that grows 2 to 3 feet tall.

Tetraneuris scaposa (stemmy four-nerve daisy) is a perennial with yellow flowers that grows to 1 foot.

Here are photos from our Image Gallery: