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.

Help us grow by giving to the Plant Database Fund or by becoming a member

Did you know you can access the Native Plant Information Network with your web-enabled smartphone?

Ask Mr. Smarty Plants

Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

Search Smarty Plants

See a list of all Smarty Plants questions

Please forgive us, but Mr. Smarty Plants has been overwhelmed by a flood of mail and must take a break for awhile to catch up. We hope to be accepting new questions again soon. Thank you!

Need help with plant identification, visit the plant identification page.

rate this answer

1 rating

Wednesday - February 04, 2009

From: Dallas, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Wildflowers
Title: Wildflower mix for East Texas
Answered by: Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

Hello! My boss is interested in planting a wild flower mix along his county road and the road that leads to his house. They live in between Athens and Palestine and have sandy loam soil .. which flowers would you recommend?

ANSWER:

The first thing that we would recommend is that this planting not take place until late Fall. The best practice on seeding is to do it when the flowers do it; that is, when they have finished blooming and made and scattered their seeds, which in Texas is in the Fall. Hopefully, there will be Fall rains, the seeds will get some cold stratification from the Winter weather, and in early Spring will be ready to start popping up. Properly done, this process will be self-perpetuating. Not all the seeds will germinate the first year, some will wait for prime conditions for one, two or more years. In addition, the ones that do come up will do their own seed creating, and the area will become rich in Texas wildflowers.

Rather than make individual flower recommendations, let us refer you to some experts in Texas wildflower mixes, Native American Seed in Junction, Texas. They have an online catalog and do mail order. Each mix will detail the plants included and you can look them up in our Native Plant Database. We looked at some mixes and here are some of our favorites for your project.

Lady Bird's Legacy Wildflower Mix

Caddo Mix - great for East Texas

Hummers and Singers - attract the birds

Texas-Oklahoma Roadside Mix

Here are some of the selections from the Caddo Mix, follow the link to the database and find out more about the plant. You can, of course, add other plants by purchasing individual packets of seeds.

Dracopis amplexicaulis (clasping coneflower)

Monarda citriodora (lemon beebalm)

Gaillardia aristata (common gaillardia)

Chamaecrista fasciculata (partridge pea)

Coreopsis tinctoria (golden tickseed)

Rudbeckia fulgida (orange coneflower)

Phlox drummondii (annual phlox)

Desmanthus illinoensis (Illinois bundleflower)

Oenothera speciosa (pinkladies)

Physostegia intermedia (slender false dragonhead)

Aphanostephus skirrhobasis (Arkansas dozedaisy)