Ask Mr. Smarty Plants

If you have indoor plants in containers, and want to go to the trouble of hauling them, that might be all right. Most plants acclimated to living outdoors in Wayne County, MI, USDA Hardiness Zone 5b, are going to promptly toast when they encounter the summer temperatures in Zone 8b to 9a in Liberty County TX. The indoor plants are probably all tropical non-natives anyway, and we do have air conditioning in Texas. If you move into an existing property, it will no doubt already have plants that do well there. If you begin with a fresh new property, you will have the pleasure of making your own choices, hopefully native to that area, and starting fresh.

Let us introduce you to our Native Plant Database. Go to Recommended Species, and click on East Texas on the map. You can also search on South Texas as Liberty County is going to share species of both ecosystems. You will be presented with a list of plants native to the area you select, and ways of searching for specific types of plants, like herbs (herbaceous blooming plants), trees, shrubs, etc. Once you know what your property is like, you can run searches to either find what you have or find what you want to plant, putting the amount of light, soil moisture, even bloom time and/or color into your search. Transplanting is about the biggest stress that can be presented to a plant; leave the ones you have for the next occupant to enjoy and learn about the beauties of gardening with natives in Texas. And bring sunscreen.