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
Tuesday - July 15, 2014
From: Loudon, TN
Region: Southeast
Topic: Plant Lists, Erosion Control, Herbs/Forbs, Shrubs
Title: Native Plants for a Steep Slope in TN
Answered by: Anne Van Nest
QUESTION:
Hello, I live in Knoxville, TN and have a very steep slope in our backyard. There is a lot of water erosion causing our grass to be covered with red dirt. I would love to try to plant something on this bank to keep it from eroding. It would be wonderful to have nice grass in our backyard. I'm not sure it is even possible, but would take any advice you could give me on any native plants, shrubs or trees that could help.ANSWER:
There's hope for you to have a great lawn in your backyard and a slope full of native wildlfowers too. The first place to go to find a list of potential slope plants for your backyard is our Native Plant Database. Use the Combination Search feature instead of Recommended Species. This will provide a bigger selection with much more choice to narrow down. The volunteers and staff at the Wildflower Center who maintain the database have put together an extensive database of plants and their characteristics for you to review.
Under Combination Search, select the following categories: TN, Habit – Herb (for herbaceous), Duration – Perennial, Light Requirement – Sun, Soil Moisture – Dry (because of the steep slope), and Size – 0-6 feet. This search criteria will give you many native plants to consider, but not all of them are appropriate for a slope.
Some potential herbaceous slope plants include:
Glandularia bipinnatifida var. bipinnatifida (Prairie verbena)
Oenothera speciosa (Pink evening primrose)
Some potential shrubs for the slope are:
Gaylussacia baccata (Black huckleberry)
Symphoricarpos albus (Common snowberry)
From the Image Gallery
More Plant Lists Questions
Climbing Roses for the Pacific Northwest
January 23, 2016 - I'm trying to find out which types of climbing roses may exist in the Pacific Northwest. I live in western Washington, and I have a small yard with several large hedges bordering it. I'm growing hai...
view the full question and answer
Native wildflowers for an Asheville, NC garden.
March 30, 2015 - I live in Asheville. I just bought a small home for the first time with a .22 acre yard. It's extremely sunny on the east side and gets good sun most of the day. Like most WNC area yards it's on a s...
view the full question and answer
Propagation information from Queens NY
October 04, 2012 - Hello. I would appreciate information on when to plant the following plants. I found on the USDA website that all these plants could withstand the cold. ALthough they can withstand harsh weather, ...
view the full question and answer
Small to medium drought-tolerant trees for Southern California
June 01, 2012 - I am looking for drought tolerant trees to line one side of our 70 foot driveway. We live in Southern California. Currently, we have queen palms, but I would like something more native or drought to...
view the full question and answer
Colorful Maples for Virginia and Pennsylvania
November 27, 2015 - We are trying to find out which trees have three or more leaf colors in the fall in Virginia and/or Pennsylvania. We found that Sweetgum and some maples do. Can you please let us know which maples hav...
view the full question and answer
Support the Wildflower Center by Donating Online or Becoming a Member today. |