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.
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Smarty Plants Question Topics
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
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| Identification of shrub looking like honeysuckle in Odessa TX October 02, 2011 Bought a shrub in Pecos, TX yesterday. It looks like honeysuckle but the brightest flat orange I have ever seen. Flower and greenery looked like honeysuckle but when I looked on the Internet under or... View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer |  | |
| Deer-resistant groundcover for New Braunfels, TX September 24, 2011 Could you recommend some deer resistant ground cover plants for the New Braunfels area? We have tried Ajuga and Katie's Ruellia and they have been eaten. View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer | ||
| Stumps of fallen oaks in Hurricane Irene from Newton PA September 03, 2011 Two large red oaks fell in the woods in our yard in Newtown PA due to Hurricane Irene. The trees have been removed, but the stumps remain. Please can you recommend some fast-growing, attractive, nativ... View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer |  | |
| Problems with Carolina Laurel Cherry from Pflugerville, TX September 02, 2011 In 2007 we planted 7 Carolina Laurelcherry (Prunus caroliniana)across our back fence. Everything was fine until this year. Three of the trees seemed to get sick and a local arborist said the roots ne... View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer |  | |
| Landscaping plant for Austin September 01, 2011 Great site! Have gotten lots of ideas. We're about to start construction on a fairly major landscaping project: raised beds/privacy screen. We're at the top of a hill in the Hill Country just wes... View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer |  | |
| Erosion at edge of driveway in Abilene TX August 26, 2011 My lawn suffered a great loss of grass over the winter and the soil at the edge of the driveway is washing away with watering and the occasional rains that we have. I am trying to get the grass to gr... View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer |  | |
| Replacing mature Arizona Ash trees in Austin August 26, 2011 Mr. Smarty Plants, I have 2 very large, very old Arizona Ash trees in my yard. I want to remove them and replace them with something like Cedar Elm or Chinquapin Oak. The problem is that they are t... View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer |  | |
| Difficulty of watering at drip line of trees from The Woodlands TX August 18, 2011 I'm watering my couple dozen native mature trees to make sure they survive this drought and its aftermath..and I'm reading about how to water at the drip line. But..all of my trees' drip lines ext... View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer | ||
| Stabilizing a sand bank in VT August 13, 2011 We have a summer cottage in Burlington, Vt. and need to stabilize a mound of sand. The "bank" we are trying to stabilize has partial sun and faces south. It measures approx 4' high and is 30' long... View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer |  | |
| Plants for small shady area with clay soil August 09, 2011 Many people have space between the sidewalk and the street in front of their homes. In that space in front of our house is a growing maple that provides a lot of shade. The space is very dry, with... View Mr. Smarty Plants' Answer |  | |
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