Xeriscape - Drought-Adaptive Horticulture

The Gone Native Drought Adaptive Garden
Scenes from July, 2006

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Mexican Petunia (Ruellia) is native to south Texas and was brought to West Texas by the settlers in the 1880s. It spreads by rhizomes and seeds and can be invasive. It works well in both sun and shade, and will grow to three feet tall.

Hackberry trees are rarely used in home landscapes because the roots can destroy sidewalks. It is native throughout the region and has several species of butterflies that lay eggs only on the genus. Orange berries in the fall and winter feed birds. The bark is unusual and attractive.

The Texas Gold Lantana (which never produces fruit) has become a popular West Texas landscaping plant. In the foreground is tubetongue, a diminutive ground cover with tiny blue blossoms. It also is the food plant for the larvae of a species of butterfly. It is native through much of Central Texas and the Stockton Plateau. One chocolate daisy bloom also graces the scene.

Pink fuzzies was just introduced in the southwestern native plant trade. It is a great ground cover, with the strange blossoms lasting until fall. The leaves will turn bronze with frost and hang on for a while.

Red gomphrena is a great annual. It reseeds itself every year, and remains in bloom from June until frost. Gardens become fantasy playgrounds when ornamentation is added.

From County Road 130 all that is seen of Gone Native is the mesquite thicket along the road, and the grove of trees and the windmill in the distance.

Tubetongue is a dark counterpoint to gray santolina. Beyond are the blooms of chocolate daisies. Such a flower bed might need supplemental watering only once or twice in a growing season.

Along the trail in front of the house is a border garden. In this view, which includes the meadow and a flagstone patio, the gray shrub is that of sandsage, a native to the Llano Estacado and other southwestern sanddune areas.

Cane cholla is native throughout the southwestern United States. It has red blossoms followed by yellow fruit. Its skeleton is often used in flower arranging.

Agave parrassana slowly spreads to form formidable barriers. To the right is a Pride of Barbados bird of paradise, which will die to the ground each year.

Pavonia begins blooming in June and will continue until frost. It grows to three to four feet tall. It will seed itself in a home landscape.

Lantana horrida is native to south Texas and was brought to west Texas by the early settlers. Most of the time it will be three feet tall, but at Gone Native a seven foot tall variety is grown as well. Butterflies love the "landing pad" and mockingbirds love the black berries, which means seedlings will appear under their favorite perches.

Texas sage is another ornamental plant used since the times of the settlers. It is native to the Stockton Plateau and the Big Bend. Over 7 species of the genus are grown at Gone Native. The large pad prickly pear was brought to Midland in the cattle drives during the droughts of the 1930s. Trucks full of the pads accompanied the cattle along the dirt roads of the time, and when the cattle were turned into a small pasture at night, the pads (with their needles singed off by flamethrowers) were fed to the cattle.

Trumpet vine was also brought by the settlers. It is an aggressive plant that spreads by underground roots. Hummingbirds will check out the blossoms, which adorn the plant from May until frost, but the nectar is too deep in the throat to truly benefit the birds.

Trumpet vines cover a portion of the shade structure at Gone Native.

A molting dove lit on the trumpet vine and left a feather behind.

Cedar elm is wonderful shade tree for West Texas. The bark of a young tree has large ridges - an unusual detail. This particular sapling is a seedling a hundred yards from its parent tree.

Even weeds can be pretty. Wild poinsetta has an interesting pattern to its leaves, and like its famous ornamental cousin will have bright red bracts in the fall.

In the foreground is anisicanthus, and beyond, Texas sage.

Jimsonweed is often used in home landscapes, but is deadly poison. Its six inch blossoms open in the evening and close by mid-morning. A plant can be six feet across and almost as tall. After five or so years, the plant dies, but the species is a prolific seed producer and other plants often appear - even in the pasture, like this one.

Navaho tea (the tiny yellow blossoms) makes a great tasting tea.

Mealy blue salvia often seeds itself, and has filled a portion of the meadow around the houses at Gone Native. Beyond can be seen the red spires of standing cypress.

Texas sage blossoms are velvety when seen in closeup.

Wissadula is native to west Texas. Its large velvety leaves are amazing to touch, and the apricot colored blossoms are an unusual color. It blooms from June until frost. A plant can reach six feet tall.

Wisleznius senna is a shrub that has a scraggly form reaching 10 feet tall. The bright yellow blossoms appear in July. For some reason, the plants at Gone Native have never set seed - other species of senna grown in the arboretum do.

White ruellia is native along the Concho River. It opens at sundown and closes in the morning. The blooms begin in June and will appear off and on until frost. Like other members of the genus, it will grow in sun or shade. Beyond are the red-hot spires of standing cypress.

Paper daisy, mealy blue salvia and chocolate daisy make an attractive garden planted by chance in the meadow.

Chocolate daisy smells like chocolate. The blooms open in the morning and by mid-morning the air around the house smells very sweet! The ray flowers (petals) begin to fold by early afternoon.

Some folks call chocolate daisy the broach flower because of the bud of the flower, seen in the left center of the picture. To the right are the seeds of plant.

A super-closeup shows how the disc flower of the chocolate daisy is a complete flower, and its hidden dark red beauty.

A close up of the mealy blue salvia show its intricate beauty.

The white ruellia are spectacular in closeup. It is pollinated by the large "hummingbird" moths (whose larvae are the big green hornworms.)

Salvia greggii comes in many shades of pink, red, orange, salmon, white, and yellow. Gone Native has over a dozen of the forms.

A closeup of standing cypress reveals the delicate leaves and tiny protruding stamens.

The yellowish Menodora is native in the rockier soils of West Texas, and is known as an ice cream plant for livestock. Blossoms fade to white before they fall. Behind it is a New Mexico feather grass, another plant that has become a favorite in landscapes in Midland and Odessa.

Arizona cypress has been planted for years in the region, and many cemeteries of the area have huge old trees. The bark is beautiful.

The blue salvia portion of the meadow became even more colorful with every June rain in 2006.

A rustic bridge over the dry stream bed frames Lila the dog. Notice how plants at the base of the red oak turn its trunk into an abstraction.

The dog does a reasonably good job at keeping the cottontail rabbits from entering the garden, but they keep trying every dawn and dusk.

Notice the number of pavonia blooms in this picture.

This picture was taken the very next day. The number of chocolate daisy blossoms also increased, but not as much as the pavonia.

Menodora in close up reveals its delicate beauty.

Five minutes later the morning sun deepened the color of the menodora bloom.

In the heart of the arboretum grove at dawn, the soft pastel colors are comforting and warm.

Pavonia is a member of the mallow family, and in closeup the unique arrangements of anthers and style are easily seen.

This tiny green bee not only comes for the pollen, but also for plant material to place into the cells of its underground nest between each egg.

Blackfoot daisy in closeup - a daisy with fewer disc flowers than most daisies (composite flowers).

The seedheads of cane bluestem glow brightly when backlit. In the background is mealy blue salvia.

Flowering straw is native to the Llano Estacado. Its common name comes from the fact that it has almost no leaves on the bare green stalks - just tiny projections.

Gomphrena in closeup reveals the clustered yellow anthers at the top of the peculiar flower. (It is a member of the amaranth family, which includes careless weed.)

A closeup of Leucophyllum zygophyllum - one of the many species of Texas sage at Gone Native.

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