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.
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.
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Wednesday - June 23, 2010
From: Iola, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Shade Tolerant, Turf, Grasses or Grass-like
Title: Will Thunder Turf do well in shade from Iola TX
Answered by: Barbara Medford
QUESTION:
Will the Thunder Turf do well in shady areas or is there a better blend of native grasses that would thrive better?ANSWER:
Native American Seed has a product page on Thunder Turf, which indicates that it is full sun only. At this point there are no shade-tolerant native grasses that could be considered turf grasses, low-growing and mowable. NAS also has a Shade Friendly Grass Mix composed of:
Tridens flavus (purpletop tridens)
Chasmanthium latifolium (Inland sea oats)
Elymus canadensis (Canada wildrye)
Bouteloua curtipendula (sideoats grama)
Elymus virginicus (Virginia wildrye)
Setaria machrostachya (plains bristlegrass) - pictures and more information
Nassella leucotricha (Texas wintergrass)
These are still not going to be urban lawn grasses. You can follow each link to our page on that grass in our Native Plant Database to learn its growing conditions, expected size and light requirements.
From our Native Plant Image Gallery:
More Grasses or Grass-like Questions
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Best Time for Dividing and Transplanting Native Bunch Grasses in Jarrell, Texas
February 02, 2011 - Dear Mr. Smarty Plants,
What time of the year is the best for dividing and transplanting native bunch grasses like Gulf muhly, and Miscanthus?
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July 24, 2013 - We planted habiturf in spring 2012. It's beautiful. But since last summer, we have had one area that seems to go dormant much more rapidly than the rest, even though it receives the same amount of ...
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August 15, 2007 - I'm asking for your advice on what to do with my buffalo grass lawn. With
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Seep Muhly in limited sunlight.
July 01, 2015 - Can Seep Muhly withstand just 3 or 4 hours of direct sunlight in an urban setting?
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