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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Saturday - July 23, 2011

From: Dallas, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Managing Roadsides, Wildflowers
Title: Planting wildflowers on roadsides in Dallas
Answered by: Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

Am interested in leading Y Princess group in community effort to plant wildflowers along roads in Dallas area. Do you have any advice on how to approach the problem or sources for the seeds?

ANSWER:

We're happy to say we can give you all kinds of help, and appreciate your contributing to a community effort to involve young people in beautifying roadsides. Here are several How-To articles on Large Scale Wildflower Planting:

Getting Started

Meadow Gardening

Roadside Gardening

Seed Collecting and Storage

Next, to the sources for the seeds. You do know that you should plant only seeds native to your area. Dallas County is considered to be in the Blackland Prairie section of North Central Texas. There is a company called Native American Seeds, which not only carries seeds native to Texas, but has wildflower mixes specific to ecoregions in Texas. They have seeds available for 45 Texas wildflowers, but they also have mixes like Texas-Oklahoma Roadside Mix, Comanche Mix, Blackland Prairie Mix and Native Texas Mix, all of which should do well in your part of the state. The website has information about all the plants they have seeds for, planting suggestions and coverage.

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Saturday - July 23, 2011

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