Fruit Tree Scion Swap

I am very much looking forward to this! I helped plan one for Central Texas Seed Savers back in Feb 2020 right before covid and it was fantastic. At the end of the event I took home all of the leftover scions. I stuck all of them in my backyard randomly. A few months later I found a peach tree growing in the backyard. I completely forgot that I planted it. My husband had to remind me about the scions I stuck all over the place. That peach grew really fast on its own roots. It hasn’t made any fruit yet, but since this is its third year in the ground I hope maybe this is the year for fruit.

Deep Freeze On the way

Extreme cold can kill tropical and Mediterranean plants like citrus and loquats. Succulents that are not native to Texas will also freeze. Here’s a text exchange with a customer of mine explaining which species to protect and how to best protect them. I have a key lime tree I keep in a pot that I brought into my house to keep it warm. The most important thing is to make sure they are well hydrated and the rain we had earlier this week will help.

How many plants?

Here’s an email exchange with a customer of mine that addresses some common questions. I hope it is helpful or at least reassuring to you, dear reader.

Hello Colleen,I figure you are pretty busy right now with spring here. No hurry on these questions. I've had them for a while and am just getting around to asking you. We are enjoying some mild weather and love seeing what comes out day to day around here.
I listened to the Planting In a Post-Wild World podcast and purchased the book and read it cover to cover. (What a beautiful book!). The two things I took away from it were:planting more plants instead of mulching (I have heard you say much the same before.)designing with "drifts" vs creating areas of one type of plant. With regard to "drifts," I like the idea of it and the results, but you really have to be confident about your plant community harmony - and I'm just not there yet. It would be like me picking up a paint brush and trying to paint something on a canvas. I would almost have to copy a specific garden done like this to feel like I was doing it right. That being said, I have LOTS of bed area to populate here, so I could experiment in a small section. I could sow a prairie seed mix. I've put out a lot of seed, and haven't seen much for it, so I am still skeptical that seeds are really things that produce actual plants. Still quite mysterious to me.
With regard to mulch - here is my question. I would like to have less mulch and more plants. But I have a lot of bed area and I plant and plant and plant, and there's still a lot of space between plants. Things are still small. I'm introducing some "groundcover" like horseherb, frogfruit and lyreleaf sage. If I mulch right up to those, I worry that they will be discouraged from expanding (although my observation is that this does not seem to be the case with frogfruit - that stuff is strong). So I've been pushing back the mulch as the ground cover expands. That leaves soil exposed for a while, anyway. Do you think this is a good approach?
How do you manage the need for plants vs mulch?Hope all is well with you. Thank you!



Hi Connie- good to hear from you!

Re: plants v mulch. If you plant more plants closer together at the beginning it will look fuller and there will be fewer weeds, especially if you are able to plant larger size plants from the nursery. But as time goes by, usually about 3-5 years, and plants get larger and also spread via roots or seeds then you have to remove plants because it will look overgrown. So you can decide how much money you can spend on plants, how much weeding you want to do and how much editing/transplanting and removal you want to do later. It’s all maintenance just different types of tasks.

Wood mulch does inhibit the spread of plants as you suspect. But it also helps prevent weeds. Using leaves, especially chopped up leaves, is a better choice for encouraging the spread of good plants but sometimes can cause baby trees to volunteer. Pine straw and pecan shell mulch are also better for not inhibiting growth.

The sheer square footage of your place requires a huge number of plants.

Planting from seeds is always tricky as it is heavily weather dependent and they can’t sprout on top of mulch. They absolutely have to have direct contact with soil. Different seeds sprout at different times of year and often we plant seeds and they will sit for months or years until the conditions are right.

Ok I’d love to come out and do another consultation for you sometime!

Fruit Tree Notes

Winter 2021-2022 was warm-hot in December but then very cold in January and February with many freezes and most days colder than average for many chill hours. We had a two hard freezes in March with the last one on March 11 and 12, later than average. On March 7: Ein shemer and Anna apples were blooming on March 7 at Renee’s farm near COTA. Tex Star peach was blooming at Renee’s farm. La Feliciana peaches blooming at Ted’s house near Camp Mabry and Renee’s farm. Holland and Golden Delicious apples were not blooming yet at Renee’s. Pocahontas necatrine was close to blooming at Renee’s and White Delight peach was also close to blooming at Renee’s.

My Front Yard Experiment

Willy at Barton Springs Nursery mentioned the book “The Know Maintenance Perennial Garden” by Roy Diblik in a recent episode of my podcast, The Horticulturati. I read the book and the concept captured my imagination: create a landscape entirely with perennials that could be mowed. Roy Diblik developed this concept in Chicago and Milwaukee. Could I adapt it to Austin?

My backyard is where all the higher maintenance plants are like roses, herbs and veggies. The front yard had been a lovely, low maintenance butterfly garden for years but in the last few years the plants in front have been subjected to calamity. Some fungus, I think maybe ganoderma but not sure, swept through and killed a few rosemarys, a palo verde tree, two texas sages and amistad salvias. Winter storm Uri in Feb 2021 took half of the canopy of an medium size American Elm, and a wind storm the following May took the other half. My woold butterfly bushes never really recovered after Uri. At some point I had tossed a handful of common sunflower seeds out there and they basically took over, to my simultaneous delight and dismay. Other trees, like my Texas Mt Laurel and my Giant Fuyu Persimmon have grown and shaded areas that were sunny. Texas Redbud was going through a process called “retrenchment” which old trees do when they reach the limit of how tall they can grow. They start to have trouble drawing water up to their tallest branches and they start making themselves shorter. The tallest branches will die and the tree will grow new sprouts from the roots or lower trunk. So I cut the biggest trunk off the redbud and let the new sprouts grow up to replace it. So all that’s to say there’s been some major changes and the front yard is ready for an overhaul.

With all the high maintenance plants in the back I wanted the front to be very easy. My husband and I have successfully mowed some perennials in the past, like four o clocks, turks caps and datura. So Diblik’s concept appealed to me. It would be like a wildflower meadow but more “put together”, more intentional and maybe more interesting in some ways

I started working on the project this past fall. I started transplanting and removing plants that I suspect would not respond well to mowing like my ‘Red Lion’ hippeastrums and salvia greggiis. I also removed some agaves and other succulents.

One twist that the Austin, Texas climate tosses into this mix is our warm winters allow for certain perennials to have the opposite life cycle of typical perennials: the tops die down in the summer, and then grow back in the fall and winter. The plants then bloom in spring and go dormant after that in the summer. White yarrow, cedar sage, oxalis, violets and spiderwort are examples. So I decided to experiment with half of the front yard getting mowed in the summer and half the front yard getting mowed in the winter. The sunny half has the more traditional perennials and will get mowed in winter. The shadier half has the winter and spring blooming plants that will get mowed in summer. Here’s a plant list:

sunny side mowed in winter: Dallas Red Lantana, zexmenia, Henry Duleberg Sage, 4 o’clocks (they were there in the shade before the elm tree fell apart, gonna see how they do in full sun) walkers low catmint, greggs mistflower, Monarda fistulosa, purple heart and little bluestem.

shady side mowed in summer: white yarrow, oxalis, leersia monandra, webberville sedge, snowdrops, lyre leaf sage, dutch iris, texas bluegrass, mondo grass, cardoons. I had the cardoons in the back veggie garden and they take up tons of space and I don’t love eating them, but they look amazing so I am going to try to transplant them.

I bought most of these plants in early January as 4” starts from a wholesale grower. They have been wonderful but hard to keep alive in the pots during cold weather and they dry out fast. I got a great deal price wise but protecting them and watering them has been stressful.

I did not take Roy Diblik’s very wise advice of starting with a 10x14 area and plotting it out on paper as a grid. Instead, I mulled it over while falling asleep at night and then in the morning made bizarre notes to self about my ideas for the plant placement. And of course I took on the entire front yard at once which is like 50xhumongous and sloped. I also didn’t prep the area the way Roy advised, partly because I was not starting with a lawn which is kind of assumed in his boon. To my customers: do as I say not as I do, I guess. Optimally I would have sheet mulched with cardboard first and then planted one gallon plants. That would have made things way easier.

Instead I have been clearing existing plants while going along planting. The existing plants were mostly a wild invasive grass called rescue brome, cleavers and hedge parsley. This method was working pretty good until spring started and now the common sunflowers and other warm season plants are sprouting and starting to get taller than my little 4” transplants. I did take Diblik’s advice and got a Dutch Push Hoe which is wonderful so I will be using that on the unwanted volunteers.

I have been using the rescue brome, hedge parsley and cleavers that I pulled up as mulch around the new plants. That worked well until they started going to seed, so now I am pulling them and putting them in the city compost pickup bin so I won’t be spreading their seeds around. Now I gotta figure out what mulch to use because these tiny 4” plants have bare soil around them and it’s getting hot. I’m leaning towards either wood chips, tree leaves or pecan shell mulch.

Anyway in retrospect I wish I had sheet mulched to start with, and I wish I had waited ‘till spring and bought bigger 1 gallon plants. But I think even if I had done those things I probably would wish I had done something else differently too. The most important thing is I have been enjoying myself and the anticipation of how it will look in May when the warm season plants start blooming is thrilling. Ok more to come soon!

The photo here is from early March 4 2022 and is basically a ‘before’ photo though I had planted a few plants at that point already.

New Episode Out TODAY

Landscape Design as the “highest art”… it’s what happens when two landscape designers get liquored up give their opinions. Click below to listen or enjoy The Horticulturati podcast on any podcast platform.

https://www.horticulturati.com

new Zine and New Class

Let's Care for Texas Plants!

Your registration for this new class will include your own copy of my new zine series, "Let's Care for Texas Plants."

Class at The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center!

With the vast amount of information available these days it can be hard to pinpoint the best techniques when it comes to caring for Texas' native plants. That's why I've combined my 10 years of research and hands-on experience to introduce the perfect guide to Texas plants, “Let’s Care for Texas Plants."

Join me in a three-part series with the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center as I'll guide you through care instructions and solutions for problem solving in your native Texas garden. Covering topics from my new guide, we'll talk about soil and grasses to trees and succulents, and more.

This class will combine my new guide with detailed techniques and demonstrations in the garden you too will learn how to care for a garden thriving year-round.

Both new and seasoned gardeners of all ages are welcome! Register today for your best native plant garden yet!

  • WHEN: Saturdays, February 12, February 19, and February 26, starting at 9:30 AM

  • WHERE: The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, 4801 La Crosse Ave. Austin, TX 78739

  • HOW TO JOIN: Cost is $45. This class will take place in person at the Wildflower Center. Space is limited and registration is required. Face masks are optional. Please review their Safety Guidelines before your visit. Register to join the class here.

I hope to see you there!

Thanks! Contact me anytime.

Colleen Dieter
GARDENING EDUCATOR

Hot off the presses

I just released a zine series. It's all about caring for native Texas plants. Order the digital or classic version here.

Copyright © 2022 Red Wheelbarrow Plants, All rights reserved.

Oak Tree Fun Facts

If you get to know me a little more you will learn that I love fun facts and trivia. I also love infographics. Here’s a cool one from Trees.com with facts about oak trees. Bur oak, Quercus macrocarpa is my favorite tree.

The infographic mentions eating acorns. I have eaten biscuits that my friend made with bur oak acorn flour. They were really yummy, quite hearty and filling. Making the acorn flour is a lot of work, you have to be committed. I have heard that the best way to get the tannins out is to put the acorns in a basket and put the basket in a stream or river where the water is running fast and tie it to a branch or a rock. As the water flows over the acorns the tannins get washed out. I don’t know how long it takes. Lucky for me, my friend made the flour and the biscuits so all I had to do was enjoy them. She used the method of boiling the acorns, pouring off the brown water and repeating until the water remains clear.

The infographic doesn’t mention one of my favorite fun facts, cork oaks native to Spain and Portugal produce cork. The cork is a layer under their outer bark that the trees grow to protect themselves from wildfires. Every 9 years or so, skilled harvesters trim the bark off with special tools taking care not to cut too deep to damage the inner vascular tissues of the trees. So they can harvest the material without killing the trees, unlike lumber. My floor in my office is made of cork. It’s relatively renewable compared to other building materials. Cork oaks occasionally grow here in Austin but not easily, my experience with them has been mixed. I think heavy clay soil, rainy weather and cold weather in the winter are all hard on them, but I’m not sure how our climate compares to their home turf over in the Iberian Peninsula. Enjoy the fun facts!

Plant Confusion: Esperanza Edition

If I were a character on the TV show Pose maybe my name would be Esperanza Edition….

Today my friend and co-host of The Horticulturati texted me and said “also can you help me figure out Esperanza's? There's Tacoma stans with the skinny leaf (the Native?), and the one with the fatter leaves that you most often see in nurseries (the more profuse bloomer). I've been trying to figure out the difference.”

All I know is the native one has a thin leaf, smaller flowers and stays shorter. The tropical one that I always just referred to as “the tropical one” gets much taller and has bigger leaves and more flowers. Native Texas Nursery, a wholesale only-grower, exclusively sells the native one. More often you see the tropical ones at the nurseries. There are cool cultivars with orangey-pink flowers with names like ‘Sangria’.

I write these types of blog posts for my own future reference and maybe someone else will find them useful too.

Ok so seems like they are all Tecoma stans, but they are all different varieties and cultivars.

Texas A&M and the LBJWFC Native Plant Database explain that the common names for all of them are Yellow Bells and Esperanza. The botanical name for the native Texas one is Tecoma stans var. angustatum. The tropical ones are Tecoma stans var. stans. [Which reminds me of the late pizza mogul and republican presidential candidate Herman Cain and his infamous and laughable “Uzbecky becky becky stan stan” moment of condescension toward “insignificant countries”].

According to the LBJWFC Tecoma stans angustatum native to Texas and Northern Mexico, it “is shorter, more drought-tolerant, and more cold-tolerant than some of the tropical varieties sold in nurseries”. The A&M article talks at length about the cold hardiness. In my experience in Austin they tend to do fine if planted in the spring so they have time to get established before facing the cold. They also resent overwatering after they are established so make sure to let them dry out between watering if you are planting them in clay soil. I saw one growing in the median between I-35 and the frontage road in Buda right near Cabela’s once, I presume it was wild.

Ok that’s it for now.

Mulled Persimmon Wine sangria

Leah came over today to test out recording the Horticulturati podcast in person in my backyard today. It was really fun and it felt safe to social distance outdoors with my gardening bud. I made this beverage in the crock pot to wind down our busy weeks.

  • 1 bottle persimmon wine from Owen County Indiana where my dear husband grew up, a delicious gift from my in-laws

  • 1 cup El Presidente Mexican Brandy
    1/2 cup orange liqueur

  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar

  • Mulling spices- I bought some that come in tea bags from the grocery store if you can’t find that you can toss some cinnamon sticks, whole coriander, whole cloves, whole allspice and cardamom pods. Think pumpkin spice.

  • slices of fresh persimmons for garnish- I had my first harvest of ‘Giant Fuyu’ persimmons from my tree this week!

Put it all in the crock pot on low and heat it up for about an hour or put it on high for half an hour depending on your crock pot. It will change color from orange to brown when the spices infuse the mix. Then you know it’s ready. Ladle it Into mugs and add a slice of persimmon.

Eric made pear bread from pears I foraged and the mulled wine went great with that snack along with more persimmon slices.

Bulbs for Austin, more plants unconfused!

Here’s another blog post meant to “unconfuse” myself. I have been obsessed with bulbs lately and needed to list some good ones for Austin. But they have confusing common names so I can use this blog post to help me track which are which when ordering them. Hope it helps you too. These are all bulbs that I have seen “naturalized” in Austin- meaning that I have seen them growing without any obvious care.

Hymenocallis liriosme -

AKA Texas Spiderlily, Spring Spiderlily, Spiderlily, Louisiana Spiderlily, Western Marsh Spiderlily. I call them Texas ditch lily. These are the ones with white flowers, large, strappy leaves that grow in ditches in East Texas. They are fantastic in areas that are frequently wet and pair well with river ferns and sedges. They like part sun/part shade. They won’t bloom in full shade and they can get sunburned leaves in full sun. I planted them in the arroyo in my backyard that is mostly shaded with some afternoon sun and they are doing great.

Rhodophiala bifida- AKA Oxblood Lily and the much more charming name Schoolhouse Lily because they bloom when school gets back in session in September. Small clusters of dark red blooms on bare stems. The blooms look like small amaryllis. Apparently these are from South America and other species have different color blooms but I have never seen them around here in Austin.

Speaking of Amaryllis…Ok so what confuses me is they usually are sold as gifts at Winter Holiday time, but they bloom in early summer if planted outdoors and left to their own devices. Some varieties are more reliable than others, so research varieties as much as possible and look for heirloom types.

Lycoris radiada- AKA spider lily (see the confusion since the Hymenocallis shares a common name?), aka Surprise Lily… these are a pinkish red color with deeply divided petals and long stamens that stick out all over. They bloom at about the same time as the Oxblood Lilies listed above. I don’t like them as much because I prefer brighter colors. Speaking of brighter colors:

Lycoris aurea- AKA yellow spider lily, ok I haven’t seen this one naturalized anywhere but I am hoping it will naturalize at my house because that golden yellow flower in the fall makes me weak in the knees.

Agapanthus- AKA Lily of the Nile- “Lily of Denial” also works because people are always trying to grow these in too much shade. The like the same kind of light as the Hymenocallis listed above. A little tricky but when you get them in the right spot they are wonderful. They come in shades of blue and white. The blue ones seem to be easier to grow.

Ok more bulb descriptions to come!

Amaryllis at my house. This variety is called ‘Red Lion’. Doing good! I have had it for only one year so we will see if it comes back and blooms again.

Amaryllis at my house. This variety is called ‘Red Lion’. Doing good! I have had it for only one year so we will see if it comes back and blooms again.

Long strap shaped leaves in the foreground are the Hymenocallis. Note the dappled shade and the contrast with the Berkeley sedge groundcover. I love this look! This spot gets lots of irrigation to keep the ferns alive. You can also see the blue agap…

Long strap shaped leaves in the foreground are the Hymenocallis. Note the dappled shade and the contrast with the Berkeley sedge groundcover. I love this look! This spot gets lots of irrigation to keep the ferns alive. You can also see the blue agapanthus off in the background on the left. The agapanthus are much smaller than the Hymenocallis.

Here’s a close up of the same Agapanthus one year later. The extra water and dappled shade made them multiply really fast. We divided them after they bloomed. There’s some white blooms in there too, looking angelic.

Here’s a close up of the same Agapanthus one year later. The extra water and dappled shade made them multiply really fast. We divided them after they bloomed. There’s some white blooms in there too, looking angelic.

Plants that Confuse Me- Mistflower Edition

Ok so when I try to design with mistflowers or order them from various nurseries they often have different names so here’s my attempt to clarify for my own future reference, but maybe it will be helpful to you too. Even the botanical names were changed on some of these in recent history to the confusion is real.

Mistflowers- all are native to Texas

  • Conoclinium coelestinum- Blue Mistflower- has non-lobed leaves and thrives in shade. Perennial groundcover type. Blooms all summer. 

  • Conoclinium greggii- Gregg’s Mistflower- has deeply lobed leaves and thrives in sun and part shade. Perennial groundcover. Blooms all summer. 

  • Ageratina havanensis- White Boneset- deciduous shrub with a weeping habit. Blooms white in fall.

  • Chromolaena odorata- Fragrant mistflower- has blue flowers, the entire plant is similar in shape and size to blue plumbago or flame acanthus, can grow in sun or shade. I treat it as a perennial in Austin, so I cut it down to the ground each winter. 

  • Ageratum spp- Whiteweed or annual mistflower- Usually planted as an annual bedding plant during the warm season. Blooms all summer. There are many species and cultivars. Most are short but some are taller. All are native to the new world.

Plants that Confuse Me- Monkeygrass edition

I have trouble keeping track of which plants we are talking about when we talk about Monkeygrass. Here’s a list for my future reference and maybe it will help you too.

Mondo Grass with thin leaves- Ophiopogon japonicus, shorter and thinner leaves than standard Liriopes

Monkey Grass (Standard)- Liriope muscari- purple flowers

Giant Monkey Grass-Liriope gigantia

Aztec Grass- Liriope muscari 'Aztec'- bright white variegation

Variegated Monkey Grass- Liriope muscari ‘Vareigata’- variegation is more yellow/gold

Dwarf mondo grass- Ophiopogon japonicus ‘Nanus'- very very short and not very drought tolerant

Black mondo grass- Ophiopogon planiscapus

Tips for Pandemic (Victory) Co-Op Gardens

My friend texted me the other day and she said “Is there such a thing as panic gardening? Because if there is, I’m guilty”. I told her I am guilty too.

But maybe you’ve heard the term “Victory Garden" used to describe gardening in response to moments of crisis. The term is taken from the gardens planted during both World Wars in response to food shortages. But, like so many things in our nation’s history, the story of Victory Gardens includes the story of racism and exclusion. In the case of WWII, that exclusion was made policy with the internment of Japanese Americans. I think it is critically important that we acknowledge this reality, especially as we grow new systems for ourselves and our communities. 

That’s why I like the term “Co-op Garden” to describe the type of gardening I am doing right now. It speaks to the cooperation, community, and sharing that is at the core of it. I’ve definitely been gardening to share what I grow! Pandemic Victory Gardens are popping up in yards and neighborhoods across the country, as many Americans are experiencing food insecurity during the Covid-19 crisis. Everyone has had some trouble figuring out how to get food, and fresh produce is particularly tricky as grocery stores and delivery services are overwhelmed with requests. The pandemic is exposing the weaknesses in our large-scale industrial food system (and toilet paper production, and mask production, and…). Access to food is a right, not a privilege. More people than just a handful of huge food conglomerate corporations should have control over where our food comes from. So with that said, here’s some help for growing your own pandemic co-op garden, that I hope you will continue to enjoy even after the pandemic is over- whenever that is.

For Central Texas Gardeners the most important thing is making sure you are planting the right crop at the right time because our seasons are so unusual compared to any other place in the world. The Travis County Master Gardener Planting Guide is crucial to success. In my garden right now I am planting cushaw squash, peppers, melons, Egyptian Spinach (not on the list), black eye peas and peanuts and more summer greens like longevity spinach. Malabar spinach, New Zeland Spinach, Sweet Potatoes and Okra are other popular choices for this time of year.

There are basically three different types of vegetable gardens. In-ground, raised beds and container gardens. All are great methods and have their pros and cons. If you have at least 1 foot depth of soil in your yard that does not have standing water on it when it rains, then an in-ground garden is the most economical option. You can get a garden going by using the double digging method. If you have thin, rocky soil, soil that doesn't drain well, or you have trouble bending and doing heavy work, raised bed gardens are the best option for you. You can build a box out of wood, stone, cement blocks etc then fill with topsoil. Hugelkulture and keyhole gardens are more economical ways to start a raised bed. I’m building Hugelkulture beds in my yard in a spot where there used to be an above-ground pool and the soil was scraped away. Container gardening is growing food in pots. Nursery pots, grow bags, buckets and stock tanks are all good economical options for container gardening provided they have holes in the bottom so water can drain out of them. It is crucial to use potting soil or other media that drains well in the containers. Many dwarf varieties of veggies are available to grow in containers.

Happy gardening!

Seed Saving During the Pandemic- Cooperative (formerly known as “Victory”) Gardens!

As a founding volunteer for Central Texas Seed Savers, I know how vulnerable and valuable our seeds are. Seed shortages, in addition to lack of access to ordinary food supplies due to an overly-centralized food system, are hitting seasoned gardeners and would-be veggie growers hard during the Covid-19 pandemic. Food crop varieties and native plants are being lost at alarming rates. But you don’t have to have a vault in an arctic mountain to help. You can save seeds from your garden and share them with friends. Our gardens are living archives of human history and biodiversity that keeps our food system strong. Seeds brought by our human ancestors to new lands- often during times of crisis- connect us to all of humanity.

This spring I planted an open-pollinated variety of beans called “Cherokee Trail of Tears” in my garden. I reflected on the horrid trials of the Cherokee peoples as they were forced to migrate from the Southeastern US to Oklahoma. They brought these seeds with them, hoping that the food would fortify them if they survived. Gardening is an ongoing act of hope, and these seeds that supported our human ancestors can help us too.

It’s easy. Start with one type of plant to get the hang of it. The type of plant needs to be an open-pollinated crops and/or a native plant. Research that plant to find out what the fruit and seed looks like when mature. Cultivate it in your garden. Collect the seeds. Store them in jars in your fridge. Share with friends. See notes and links below for more info. I made a seed “grab bag” in little paper lunch sacks with assorted seeds in envelopes to share with neighbors during the pandemic. I put them in a little old mailbox up by the street for people to pick up (separate from my USPS mailbox). The response has been overwhelming both in terms of demand for the seeds and emotions on my part in hearing messages of gratitude from seed recipients.

Will Bonsall has spent his life collecting and caring for rare seeds.

Habitat destruction of wild tomatoes threatens our food supply.

An extensive look at the history of the tomato: from its origins in the Americas, to its undeserved reputation as poison, to the various fights over whether it's a vegetable or fruit.

Volunteers can find rare plants once thought extinct.

Tips for beginning seed savers 

Get more info at Central Texas Seed Savers.

Great plants for beginner seed savers!

Basic seed saving guidelines

a.  Plan your garden to reduce cross-pollination by using isolation distances below.

b.  Always save seeds from the healthiest, “true-to-type” plants.

c.   Select seeds for different characteristics such as size, taste, & disease-resistance.

d.  Don’t save seeds from hybrids.

e.  Label your garden and packets.

f.    Never plant all of your seeds in one year.

 

Peas & Beans (Legumes)

Plant: To ensure varietal purity isolate different varieties of beans by 100 ft and peas by 50 ft.

Harvest: Let beans and peas dry on the vine until crispy. Collect. Shell.

Know your bean species: If you know the scientific name of your bean, then you can plant one of each species and not have to worry about cross-pollination. Ex. Fava beans (Vicia faba) can be planted right next to Kentucky wonder beans (Phaseolus vulgaris).

Sunflower Family

Lettuce

Plant: Isolate different varieties of lettuce by 10 ft. 

Harvest: Let lettuce bolt. When half the flowers have turned white & fluffy, cut off the stalk and put upside down in a brown paper bag to dry. Remove chaff.

Sunflowers

Plant: Isolate different varieties of sunflowers by ¼ mile! Other strategies are to plant lots of the same variety of sunflower and rub your hand over the flowers to increase self-pollination.

Harvest: Let sunflower head dry on plant. Collect seeds.

 

Nightshade Family

Tomatoes

Plant: Isolate different varieties by 10 ft.

Harvest: Collect ripe tomatoes. Squeeze pulp and seeds into a jar. Let ferment 2-3 days until a mold forms. Add water. Pour off mold, floating seeds and any pulp. Viable seeds will sink.  Repeat until water is clear. Put on a labeled paper to dry.

Peppers

Plant: Isolate different varieties by 400 ft. Peppers will cross! 

Harvest: Remove seeds from fully ripened peppers. Use gloves if hot. Dry.

Watch seed saving videos at RichmondGrowsSeeds.org.

Get more info at Central Texas Seed Savers.

 

Ideas for a more stable meadow

My friend Rebekah and I have been lamenting the short-lived nature of so many of our favorite Texas natives in meadows. Urban micro prairies are becoming super popular and as maintenance gardeners we have had some issues with their long-term success. Verbena, coneflower, gaura, coreopsis, winecups seem to fade after a few years and you have to rely on them reseeding for long term success. Also some meadows only look great in the spring. In addition, starting plants from seed has its own challenges, especially in an urban landscape- tracking seedlings of desirable plants, controlling invasive species that colonize alongside our wildflowers and living with less than pretty wildflowers after they go to seed are all huge bummers. If you mulch between the plants to prevent weeds then you will inhibit the wildflowers from reseeding. But if you don’t mulch empty spaces then you will end up weeding for the rest of your life. Not to mention depending on rain for germination and struggles with erosion. So I decided to start a list of plants that I think might make a nice meadow that are available as larger nursery plants and are long lived but could also withstand being mowed once or twice per year and are aggressive growers to block out weeds. This list is off the top of my dome, just getting me and you thinking about the concept. I think mowing in early July and early February would fit the bill for this group but I never did it IRL.

All mistflowers- especially greggs, salvia greggii (can we mow it?) fall aster, pink evening primrose (not often available as plants but easy to transplant and fast growing), mexican hat, henry duleberg sage, cenizo (i have seen it mowed), sedges, bushy bluestem, inland sea oats, globe mallow, pink rock rose (maybe would be more long lived if mowed), rain lilies, zexmenia, texas lantana (Will it bloom if mowed?) Four o’ clocks (not available as plants but could be started from seed in pots and transplanted). Any other ideas? Email me at colleen@redwheelbarrowplants.com.

Two Plants to Campaign For

One of my customers has these two wonderful grasses growing in his yard. They are growing in shade and have spread nicely this summer. I am not sure what they are but I am about 85% sure I identified them correctly. I hope I can get some master gardeners to trial them and some local nurseries to start growing them because I know as a landscape designer I am always looking for plants like these. I know some other designer and landscape architect friends that would want these too.

The first is a groundcover that I mistook for white Tradescantia until I saw it blooming- the flowers are clearly flowers of a plant in the grass family. The stems are waxy like a grass as well. I think it is Oplismenus hirtellus which is native to Texas. It is very short- less than 6” tall in this situation. It is on a hillside in a wooded area under Live Oaks and Cedars. It took off a grew very quickly after large Photinias were removed from the area. The soil here is nice- relatively deep and undisturbed. The plants get some irrigation from a big rotor but the area is mostly dry. The flowers are pink. More info here: https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=OPHI

The second is a short grass that is bright lime-green (one of my favorite colors) and it is quite short but still upright… and growing in shade! I’m pretty sure it is Rice Cutrgass, Leersia monandra. It is growing with very little irrigation, if any, on the same hillside as the other plant listed above. I think it would be a great candidate for yards where St Augustine grass died. I have been using sedges for that purpose but I have found some of the sedges to be short-lived, and most are dark green and spread out on the ground. I love the sedges but I like the bright green and upright habit of this grass better. Willie at Barton Springs Nursery verified my identification of this one. More Info: https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=LEMO

Enjoy the photos and one scan.

Oplismenus hirtellus? Not sure if that is the correct ID. This image is a scan of a stem.

Oplismenus hirtellus? Not sure if that is the correct ID. This image is a scan of a stem.

Oplismenus hirtellus? Makes a great groundcover in shade. Basketgrass… native to Texas, I hope.

Oplismenus hirtellus? Makes a great groundcover in shade. Basketgrass… native to Texas, I hope.

Basketgrass native to Texas, I think… Oplismenus hirtellus- photo taken in November after a freeze so the white spots on the leaves are cold damage. You can’t tell from the photo but the flowers are pink.

Basketgrass native to Texas, I think… Oplismenus hirtellus- photo taken in November after a freeze so the white spots on the leaves are cold damage. You can’t tell from the photo but the flowers are pink.

Leersia monandra. My photos don’t do it justice.

Leersia monandra. My photos don’t do it justice.

Leersia monandra

Leersia monandra