Native Plants

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Sunday - March 04, 2012

From: Round Rock, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Meadow Gardens, Wildflowers
Title: Wildflower Lawn for Round Rock, TX
Answered by: Brigid & Larry Larson

QUESTION:

Dear Mr. Smarty Plants, I live on the west side of Interstate 35 in Round Rock. I have a very sick St. Augustine lawn that I would like to replace with some sort of wildflower mix. I like the look of four nerve daisy but I have learned that they won't do well in my clay soil. I have some large live oaks that shade the area in the morning but allow full afternoon sun. Can you recommend some sort of wildflower mix that will do well in these conditions? Thanks!

ANSWER:

Sure! The Wildflower Centers Recommended Species lists cover most of what we should consider. When I searched the “Central Texas” selection for 0-1 ft and 1-3 ft tall to separate out most of the wildflowers, I still had 67 species to consider! I didn't search the records for "sun", but it is also possible. I’ve included a few colorful selections from this group in the pictures below!

However If you like the Four Nerve Daisy – I think you should give it a try. I found Tetraneuris scaposa var. scaposa (Four-nerve daisy) within the Central Texas collection and two more, Tetraneuris linearifolia (Fineleaf fournerved daisy) and Tetraneuris linearifolia var. linearifolia (Fineleaf fournerved daisy), which appear to be native to Williamson and Travis Counties in the database! Mr Smarty Plants has even ID’ed the Four-nerve Daisy as common around Round Rock.

There is also a good selection of similar answers in the Mr Smarty Plants archives. One person from Round Rock had collected seeds from local plants and asked about propagating them. If they are already growing in the fields, you know they will thrive in a lawn garden! You may also want to consider this selection, where they discuss a very similar lawn, but with the emphasis towards selecting Native Grasses and groundcovers.

Finally, another option is to plant – and let the flowers themselves select which ones will thrive in your lawn. i.e. There are several suppliers out there that have a pre-mixed variety of Texas wildflowers. In particular, WildSeed Farms and Native American Seed [both Wildflower Center associates] offer these. Just plant the mix and after a couple seasons, those flowers that will flourish at your site will be the ones that dominate your lawn!