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

Not Yet Rated

Thursday - April 02, 2009

From: Harlingen, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: General Botany, Non-Natives, Trees
Title: Grafting stone fruit
Answered by: Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

Do you know of anyone grafting the new low chill stone fruit trees to the Mexican plum to minimize cotton rot? Or would it even work?

ANSWER:

Sorry, this is way out of our range of expertise. In the first place, most stone fruits are non-native to North America. In the second place, we don't know anything about grafting. At the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, we deal with plants native to North America as well as to the area in which they are being grown. Anything grafted or hybridized falls out of our comfort zone. You might contact the Cameron County Extension Office; this is a function of the AgriLIFE Extension of Texas A&M System, and they could very well be doing experiments on this kind of problem.

Native Plants

Ask Mr. Smarty Plants

rate this answer

Thursday - April 02, 2009

QUESTION:

ANSWER:

More General Botany Questions