Native Plants

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Wednesday - December 19, 2012

From: The Woodlands(Spring), TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Shade Tolerant, Shrubs
Title: Shrub for mostly shaded area in The Woodlands TX
Answered by: Joan Singh and Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

What large shrub will grow in a partially shaded to mostly shaded tree area in The Woodlands(Spring), Texas which is north of Houston, Texas between Houston and Conroe? The Woodlands is in the very southern tip of the Piney Woods region of Texas. Houston is in the northern part of the Gulf Region of Texas.

ANSWER:

We are familiar with the area of The Woodlands. It is right on the border between two ecoregions: Gulf Coast Prairies and Marshes and Pineywoods. Follow these links to the pages on those ecoregions, read the description of the soils and climate and you will find characteristics that fit where you are. Using the sidebar on the right side of the page on each, we will search on "shrub" for Habit, both "part shade" (2 to 6 hours of sunlight a day) and "shade" (less than 2 hours of sun a day" under Light Requirements. From those two lists, we will select some suggestions. You can follow each plant link to our webpage on that shrub to discover its expected mature size, what kind of soil it likes (which you should have because of where you are gardening), and how much moisture it requires. We will check that each plant we suggest does appear in the area of Montgomery County.

From the Gulf Coast Prairies and Marshes List:

Aesculus pavia var. pavia (Scarlet buckeye)

Aloysia gratissima (Whitebrush)

Amorpha fruticosa (Indigo bush)

Calylophus berlandieri ssp. pinifolius (Berlandier's sundrops)

Erythrina herbacea (Coralbean)

Ilex vomitoria (Yaupon)

From the Pineywoods List:

Callicarpa americana (American beautyberry)

Ceanothus americanus (New jersey tea)

Rhus glabra (Smooth sumac)

Symphoricarpos orbiculatus (Coralberry)

Several of these shrubs appear on both lists; we have listed the duplicates only in the first list. You may rerun these searches to see if you can find others that you prefer. If you have difficulty finding your selected shrubs from our database, go to our National Suppliers Directory, put your town and state or just your zip code in the "Enter Search Location" and you will get a list of native plant nurseries, seed companies and consultants in your general area. They all have contact information so you can inquire as to availability before you start driving.