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

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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!

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Saturday - February 17, 2007

From: Lago Vista, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Transplants, Wildflowers
Title: Transplanting seedlings washed out of area by rain
Answered by: Damon Waitt

QUESTION:

I sowed a rather large area in my wild back yard in wildflowers. There is no grass. A few weeks later after we had been watering them because of no rain (in Sept), we got way too much rain and many of the seeds were washed into my regular yard. I have noticed little plants coming up in the grass and want to know how to identify some of the plants and ask when and how to dig them up and transplant them.

ANSWER:

Mr. Smarty Plants thinks there is a high probability that those little plants in the grass are from the washed away seeds. We are working on adding seedling images to our image gallery but that project is a few months from completion and you don't have that long if you want to transplant the seedlings back where they belong. To transplant the seedlings, take a knife and core into the earth around the seedling taking special care to get the entire tap root. This should create a small plug which you can easiiy transplant back into a new spot. Water your new transplants once dailiy until they start growing again and you should be good to go.

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Saturday - February 17, 2007

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