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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Tuesday - March 22, 2011

From: Austin, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Plant Identification
Title: Identity of plant at Zilker Botanical Gardens
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

I am trying to identify a large flowering shrub I saw at Zilker Botanical Gardens. The bloom looks like a small chrysanthemum bloom that has been ruffled. The bloom are yellow, white, or pink. We had them when I was a little girl and they grew on a fence and cascaded down. The ones I saw recently are in a large bush, almost a tree. The one was next to the white gazebo at the start of the Mabel David Rose Garden, to the southeast about 20 feet.

ANSWER:

Mr. Smarty Plants would like to help but this doesn't sound like a native plant and what we are all about here at Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center is "to increase the sustainable use and conservation of native wildflowers, plants and landscapes." That means we don't always do well on identifying non-native ornamentals and it is especially difficult to identify plants with a description alone. There is a way that you can find out what it is, however.

Ask the people at Zilker Gardens! Since they are on the spot, they can take a stroll out to the gazebo and find out what it is.

From their webpage I found an e-mail address to contact them: [email protected]

They should be able to tell you what it is using your description of the plant and where it is located.