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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Friday - July 02, 2010

From: Bastrop, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Shade Tolerant, Herbs/Forbs, Wildflowers
Title: Flowering plants for shady garden in Bastrop
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

We live in Bastrop, 8 miles west of the Historical district. We have a small flower garden in a shady spot around 25 feet from the back patio of our home. We'd like to find out what native plants, flowering and perennial could we plant in this garden. We use only organic preparations on the plants. Thanks for your help!

ANSWER:

Please visit our Texas-Central Recommended page where you will find a list of commercially available native plants suitable for landscaping in Central Texas. You can use the NARROW YOUR SEARCH option in the sidebar to select any criteria you would like. For instance, you could choose 'Herb' from the GENERAL APPEARANCE area, 'Perennial' under LIFESPAN and 'Shade - 2 hrs or less' under LIGHT REQUIREMENT. If your flowerbed receives more than 2 hours of sun per day, you can look for plants that grow in part shade. You could also change the LIFESPAN to 'All durations' and choose 'Shrub', 'Grass/grasslike' etc. Here are a few suggestions from the list and you can look for more:

Aquilegia canadensis (red columbine)

Coreopsis lanceolata (lanceleaf tickseed)

Asclepias tuberosa (butterfly milkweed)

Glandularia bipinnatifida var. bipinnatifida (Dakota mock vervain)

Wedelia texana (hairy wedelia)

Calylophus berlandieri ssp. pinifolius (Berlandier's sundrops)

Malvaviscus arboreus var. drummondii (wax mallow)

Nolina texana (Texas sacahuista)

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