Native Plants

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Thursday - December 11, 2008

From: Dallas, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Seed and Plant Sources
Title: Trying to find a supplier for east Texas wetland plants
Answered by: Jimmy Mills

QUESTION:

Mr. Smarty Plants, I'm trying to find suppliers for native, East Texas wetland plants (edge and submerged) and can't seem to find any. Can you help?

ANSWER:

Mr. Smarty Plants isn't sure if you are wanting to build a pond, or you aleady have a pond/ wetland that you need vegetation for. I'm going to give you some sources that could cover both possibilities. Also, East Texas can cover a lot of territory.

First, we'll consider the plants. If you need a list of plants to use, go to the Native Plants page of our website. Scroll down to Combination Search and select Texas for the state, and "wet" for soil moisture, you will get a list of 216 native species. Another souce of names is the Aquaplants site of the Texas Agrilife Extension Service at the Texas A&M System that has a list with photos that identifies wetland plants.

For help in locating suppliers, go to our Suppliers Directory and enter your city and state in the appropriate space. You will get a list of nurseries that sell native plants in your area. If you only enter Texas, the list will cover the entire state. I did this and came up with two possibilities: Omas Garten Pflanzen in Killeen, TX and Mc Neal Growers in Manchaca, TX.

The Houston Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas (NPSOT) has a directory of nurseries in the Houston area that sell native plants. Of particular interest is Nelson Water Gardens and Nursery that provides plans for ponds and water gardens as well as plants to go in them. Another source for this kind of information is the North Texas Water Garden Society.