The beauty of spring blooming wildflowers in the Texas Hill Country is hard to match so why not incorporate some of them into your landscape or garden and bring that beauty home? There are many native alternatives to the usual spring bedding plants and more and more local nurseries are stocking them so they’re easy to find.
Purple Coneflower is one of my favorites because it’s easy to care for, grows in sun or part shade and has big, showy blooms. Echinacea purpurea has violet to white daisy-like flowers that bloom spring to summer and as a bonus it’s a great butterfly plant! Another perennial that sports showy blooms and attracts butterflies is Coreopsis lanceolate. This is another sun to part shade loving plant that blooms buttery yellow flowers spring all the way into summer. Both plants together in either containers or a planted bed make for a beautiful, easy to care for combo that stay about a foot and a half tall.
If you’re looking for a really drought tolerant color plant then you may want to try Blackfoot Daisy. Melampodium leucanthum is a low growing, mounding evergreen that blooms small white with yellow center daisy like flowers in spring and again in fall. This plant likes rocky, well-drained soil and very sunny conditions. A great plant to pair with the Blackfoot is the yellow blooming Damianita (Chrysactinia mexicana) which is also a low growing (1’ tall) mounding evergreen that loves rocky soils and good drainage. Both natives can be seen growing side by side on rocky roadsides in the Edwards Plateau and together in a landscape they make for long-lasting bloom times with little to no care.
Salvias are another great choice for easy to care for native color plants. There are many varieties of salvias and some have been hybridized for even showier repeat blooms. Cedar Sage Salvia roemeriana is a low growing red bloomer while Mealy Blue Sage Salvia farinacea is a medium sized blue blooming sage. If you are looking for height then Salvia guaranitica and Salvia penstemonoides are great choices.
One of my all-time favorite native color plants is Verbena. This is the low growing, creeper that blooms beautiful purple blooms in spring and well into summer. You can see it growing in huge patches in vacant lots and pastures in both the Hill Country and the Blackland Prairie. This plant is perfect for cascading out of containers, meandering with other color plants and on its own as a bedding plant.
So, don’t be limited to the old standbys like petunias and begonias this year but instead try a few natives…you’ll be pleased with the result!
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