Xeriscape – Drought-Adaptive Horticulture

THE HISTORY OF PLANTINGS IN WEST TEXAS

Trees

• 1890s Black Locust, American Elm, Hackberry, Osage Orange, Jujube, Parkinsonia, Desert Willow
  
  
• 1920s Siberian Elm, arborvitae, italian stone pine, italian cypress, vitex
  
  
• 1950s Mulberries, sycamore, catalpa,
  
  
• 1970 Live Oak, red oak, cherry laurel, pecan, slash pine, ornamental fruit trees
  
  
• 1980s Afghan Pine, chinese pistache

Shrubs

• 1890s lilac, winter jasmine, bird of paradise, coralberry, forsythia, antique roses
  
  
• 1930s leucophyllum, mt laurel, oleanders, mex. elder
  
  
• 1950s broadleaf evergreens- ligustrum holly, euonymous, pyracantha, eleagnus modern roses
  
  
• 1970s more broadleaf evergreens- podocarpus, nandina, brooms, pittosporum indian hawthorn, barberry ,cottoneaster
  
  
• 1980s native plants... more cultivars of above

Flowers

• 1890s -1920s; asters, iris, ceratostigma plumbago, oxblood lily, dianthus, oxeye daisy, native lantana, spring star flower, turks cap, ruellia, crinum, salvia greggi and coccinea, hollyhocks, petunias, zinnias, larkspur, yarrow, species daylilies
  
  
• 1950s the beginning of the annual flower business, plus dusty miller, vinca, mums, moss rose, nasturtium, geraniums, redhot poke
  
  
• 1990 the explosion of perennials, return of old ones from 1890's, plus russian sage, coreopsis, columbine, salvias, gomphrena