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.

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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.

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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!

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Thursday - July 30, 2009

From: Dallas, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Shade Tolerant
Title: What plant grows in extremely hot Texas weather in the shade in Dallas Texas?
Answered by: Jimmy Mills

QUESTION:

What plant grows in extremely hot Texas weather in the shade?

ANSWER:

If we were to rephrase your question, would it look something like this? "Could you recommend a plant that can grow in the shade in Dallas Texas?" Yes I can, with your help.

Lets go to our Recommended Species list and click North Central Texas on the map. This will give you a list of 105 commercially available native plant species suitable for planned landscapes in North Central Texas. If we go to the Narrow Your Search column on the right side of the page, we can make some choices that can trim our list. The first choice is easy; select Texas under State. Under General Appearance and Lifespan there are several choices, but let's choose Herb and Perennial for now. Choose Shade under Light Requirement, Moist under Soil Moisture and scroll down and click the "Narrow your search"button.

Our list has been trimmed down to 2. Clicking on the name of each plant will pull up its NPIN page that has plant characteristics, growing information, and images.