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.

Help us grow by giving to the Plant Database Fund or by becoming a member

Did you know you can access the Native Plant Information Network with your web-enabled smartphone?

Ask Mr. Smarty Plants

Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

Search Smarty Plants

See a list of all Smarty Plants questions

Please forgive us, but Mr. Smarty Plants has been overwhelmed by a flood of mail and must take a break for awhile to catch up. We hope to be accepting new questions again soon. Thank you!

Need help with plant identification, visit the plant identification page.

rate this answer

Not Yet Rated

Sunday - December 16, 2012

From: Toronto, ON
Region: Canada
Topic: Watering
Title: Water use rate calculations from Toronto ON
Answered by: Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

Can the high medium and low water use categories be quantified into a rate, say volume of water required by square foot of planted area? How are the water use categories established?

ANSWER:

This is a little out of our area of expertise. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, home of Mr. Smarty Plants, is dedicated to the growth, propagation and protection of plants native to North America which, of course, includes Canada. In Texas, where we live, the consumption of water is a constant subject of discussion, because of our continuing drought. Watering is often restricted to certain hours and/or certain days, so we are always recommending plants requiring low water use for gardeners in our area.

We were unable to locate any sites online that had specific information on what your soils and rainfall were like in order to help you decide. We did find one site that might be of service from Washington State University Garden Math.