Native Plants

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Tuesday - March 11, 2008

From: Austin, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Container Gardens
Title: Native plants for container gardens in Central Texas
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

Dear Mr. Smarty Plants: I moved to TX last year, for now living in an apartment with a good-size but shady deck; my garden in VA was full of VA native plants. What TX natives, if any, can I grow in containers on a shady deck? Besides prickly pear: already have babies growing from three fallen pads that I potted. Thank you.

ANSWER:

Mr. Smarty Plants has some great information for you for beginning Container Gardening with Texas Native Plants and we even have a list of Native Plants for Container Gardens in Central Texas. You can Narrow Your Search in this list by growth habit, light requirement and other criteria to meet your situation.

In addtion, the Wildflower Center is having our Spring Plant Sale in April where you can find the plants shown below and many more for sale.

Here are a few plants that are Mr. SP's favorites on that list (with a couple of additions to the list) that would do well in containers on your shady deck.

Glandularia bipinnatifida var. bipinnatifida (Dakota mock vervain)

Melampodium leucanthum (plains blackfoot)

Phacelia congesta (blue curls)

Phlox drummondii (annual phlox)

Salvia coccinea (blood sage)

Tradescantia gigantea (giant spiderwort)

Nolina texana (Texas sacahuista)

Carex planostachys (cedar sedge)

Chasmanthium latifolium (Inland sea oats)

Equisetum hyemale (scouringrush horsetail)

Malvaviscus arboreus var. drummondii (wax mallow)