Essays

Moseying: Living La Vida Llanero

Graduate-level drought adaptive gardening - Part 2
March 26, 2008

Green (and shades of green) are not the only colors of the landscape – especially “western” and “southwestern” landscapes. Ornamental grasses have become distinctly visible in commercial landscapes. Much of the landscaping for all of the new shopping and sports districts along Loop 250 utilizes two species of grass. Ornamental grasses introduce new colors to the ornamental landscape pallet – shades that are golden, tawny, and silvery. Grasses can be spectacular when backlit by the sun in the early morning and evening.

The April 5th plant sale will feature four ornamental grasses of differing heights. Lindheimer muhly is the biggest – its bloom panicles can be seven feet tall, and one clump can be six feet across. The seedstalks remain on the plant over the winter and “capture the long sunlight” delightfully. The blades of the grass are a soft blue green during the growing season. Little bluestem is red all winter. Clumps are usually less than two feet across, and usually reach less than three feet tall. Sideoats grama is the state grass of Texas. Its seedstalks are only a foot tall, and the leaves have orange highlights all winter. The Comanche war lance with its feathers dangling was inspired by the way the seeds of sideoats line up on one side of the stalk. The fourth species available at the plant sale is galleta. It can slowly develop patches of a unique turf of curly leaves that never get more than six inches tall. Its bloomstalks are white spires that reach up another six inches. When irrigated it is a soft blue green, but when not irrigated is a bright silvery white.

In the southwest the sunlight is bright – in fact, most of the time it is “overbright.” It can wash out color. The sunlight and heat desiccates green growing things unless there is a generous and liberal application of irrigation water. Drought adapted grasses remain attractive when they are not green, and provide interesting counterpoints to plants in the landscape that remain green.

In natural landscapes in most of central and west Texas, and in the foothills of the mountains of the southwest, juniper provides a dark green, but there are other species that are evergreen, and these species come in several heights. Last week’s column mentioned the Creosote Bush, which can reach up to 6 feet tall with a light and airy form. Ericameria provides a dense evergreen background that is only two to three feet tall. It will be covered with bright yellow blossoms in September over which butterflies continually dance. The species has a aromatic resinous odor. Ericameria grows along the ridge road on the west side of the Guadalupe Mountains, where one of the most glorious vistas in the world has given me countless thrills.

The resinous odors are part of the nature of drought adapted plants. When a person walks in the “wild” landscape of the region new smells are a delightful discovery. Each species of plant seems to have an optimal time when the odors are released. Some of our most loved culinary herbs, such as rosemary and thyme, are also odiferous plants with odors from resins.

Another major evergreen form in the southwest is that of yucca and agave. Both have sharp leaves, not to everyone’s liking, and which are also prone to permanently capturing the ubiquitous plastic bag that ride the spring gusty winds. The April 5th plant sale will also feature Nolina, which is more grasslike in appearance, and is a wonderful complement to the form. For many years the Texas Department of Transportation installed the plants at the small roadside parks that dot the state highways. West Texas ranchers call nolina by the names sacahuista and basketgrass. It is found in rocky habitats throughout the region.

Another diminutive evergreen shrublet is flattop buckwheat, growing less than three feet tall. In the fall its white blooms become sprays of reddish brown that hang on all winter. A native of the Mojave Desert, it has survived over ten years of West Texas testing. In its native range it receives less than 7 inches of rain, but it did not “rot out” under last year’s 20 inches of rain, and it has survived temperatures down to ten degrees and ice and snowstorms.

We have some winter jasmine left, another evergreen shrublet. We will also have Mariola, which is not evergreen. Its gray green leaves can make it “invisible.” When it is bloom with white sprays densely clustered, however, the smell is “super-sweet.” Its foliage also has a sweet smell. A native of West Texas (including Midland and Ector County) its bloom buds were favorite “chiclets” to rural children, and for Indians and early settlers, a bitter tea made from its leaves cured a cramping stomach. Mariola has only recently been introduced to the “Native Ornamentals” trade. We do not know how it will do under varying horticultural conditions.

Other plants for sale are our newly propagated Purple Verbena (the only long-lived verbena) and a handful of our “Kerrville phlox.” This phlox is evergreen (except in late July and August when it should be cut to the ground.) In May, its sweet perfume fills the garden, and can be detected halfway down a city block. We also will have some orange globe mallow, chocolate daisy, and yellow angelita daisy, which are horticultural selections of favorite roadside flowers of West Texas.

We will also have littleleaf sumac, a deciduous shrub that can become six feet tall and six feet across. Its tiny leaves are adorned with red berries in May, which make the most delightful tea (providing a person can harvest them before migrating birds (grosbeaks and tanagers). As an ornamental shrub, meditative pruning can highlight interesting arching branching.

For folks that have never ventured into "xeriscaping," we have identified certain locations to use as a test plat. Lauren Springer writes of "hell strips," the areas between sidewalk and street, or fence and street, places of intense heat and poor soil. If you have such a place in your yard, this might be the best place to begin to learn about the plants we are promoting. An area with automatic watering thrice weekly, deeply shaded is the worst place to put “drought adapted” plants. New housing is also a “good habitat,” for the fill dirt brought to cover the compaction and other construction damage is often very poor soil. We hope that you become involved as a gardener, learning the stories of the plants. Gardens are not nameless backdrops, or mere frames to your life, but are instead are 3-D interpretations of who you are.

Related: Part 1