Native Plants

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Sunday - September 02, 2007

From: Austin, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Shrubs
Title: Native landscape in Central Austin
Answered by: Damon Waitt

QUESTION:

We live in Central Austin and are landscaping part of yard. We planted a 30 gallon red oak tree, built sizeable beds around it and want to complete the landscaping with native grasses, shrubs, climbing flowers, and irises. We would like the plants (or a majority of them) to be evergreen. We are thinking of the lemon beebalm, coral honeysuckle, and prairie rose as start but are getting lost in the "weeds" to complete our project. Please help in any way you can.

ANSWER:

It can get a bit overwhelming given so many different options for evergreen native grasses, shrubs, climbing flowers, and irises in central Texas. Your best bet is to start with Hill Country Horticulture - Native plants for the Central Texas Hill Country. Once you have the full list displayed you can narrow your search by habit, duration, flower color, etc. until you settle on the plants that have the characteristics you desire. For example here are few evergreen shrubs that might suit your needs. Although they don't have spectacularly showy flowers, they do have colorful berries that attract birds.

Morella cerifera (wax myrtle)

Rhus virens (evergreen sumac)

Prunus caroliniana (Carolina laurelcherry)

Morella cerifera

Rhus virens