Working on art project to draw all 50 states through their native/official floral theme and here is Texas state 💛

Hope you like it,

🌸 Flowers I picked for this art: Texas bluebonnet, Indian blanket, Indian paintbrush, Pink evening primrose, winecup flower (Callirhoe involucrata), and White prickly poppy 🌸

Hello from South Texas! 🌵
I’m a lifelong Texan and cactus enthusiast with a special passion for Astrophytum and unusual collector varieties.
One species especially meaningful to me is Astrophytum asterias, commonly known as the Texas Star Cactus, which is native to South Texas and northeastern Mexico.
Pictured is a cultivated Superkabuto variety from my collection. Although its distinctive markings differ from those typically seen in the wild, it’s a beautiful reminder of the diversity within this remarkable species.
Looking forward to connecting with fellow Texans who appreciate our native cactus and the importance of preserving them in their natural habitats!

Leon County Texas in May

It is enjoyable to watch so many monarch butterflies frolicking around Greg's mist flower for nectar. I planted them in 7 to 10 places in my yard. Hopefully, we'll have even more butterflies next year.

Loving all the butterflies and bees that come to my pollinator garden, but the Monarchs are extra special!

Smelled it before I saw it while on a hiking trail in San Marcos. It smells incredible! Has a bloom similar to almond verbena but the smell and leaves are different. im having trouble tracking it down on my own.

Leon County, Texas

I'm overthinking and trying to do the best I can this fall as a newcomer to native plants (and a bit of a new transplant to Texas too). Am I being too ambitious with spacing for this redo of my front bed? I'm in 9a just outside Houston in the Gulf Coast Prairies and Marshes ecoregion. I do have decompressed shale to amend the soil for the blackfoot daisy and autumn sage but I don't know if I'll be able to establish the daisy. I'm excited to make my front bed a happier place for pollinators while still keeping my HOA off my back!

There’s a ton of these little green sprouts coming up all over my bed with my Bluebonnets. I know the first stage of the lifecycle of Bluebonnets is growing and storing nutrients underground in their roots which is why I hate for them to get taken advantage of by weeds at such a small size. There used to be Tropical Milkweed there but it was never that big or produced that many seeds. iNaturalist just said it was a Dicot, well no duh 🤦.

If anyone knows what these are I would really appreciate input. I’m outside of Houston.

Let's chat about what's going on with you and Texas native plants this week!

How's your native garden doing? Any new plants, plans, or progress? Things that are looking particularly good this week? Questions you're worried are too silly for a top level post?

Did you see some neat plants this week? How about visiting birds, bugs, or other beasts?

I just love the blooms on this sage. In a couple of years, it should be huge.

Hey fellow plant folks! How are y'all watering your beds until your natives are established? I'm loathe to use a sprinkler, not impressed with soaker hoses, and tired of hand-watering, especially since I have doubled my native area this fall. I really, really don't want to spend a lot on drip irrigation, but I don't know of a better way. Help!

Velvet Leaf Mallow is huge this year. Edwards Plateau above San Marcos.

There was an earlier thread about growing Bluebells and how wonderful they are so I wanted to revive that and offer some seeds.

The origin of these plants I have is supposed to have been East Texas and I have these growing in the pineywoods. I'm not going to delve into which ssp. they are, that seems to be kind of problematic even for experts, but these are definitely the native bluebells.

The seeds are literally the size of a grain of sand and one pod probably produces 100? 500? or more? of them, so I have a large number from this stand and a couple others I have scattered around the yard.

When I lived farther west, I used to buy them every year at Wildflower Center sale because I found the little tykes very hard to grow but since I moved out here, I don't get down to Austin anymore so I had to learn to grow them because I didn't want to be without them.

They are easy to germinate, I cold moist stratify them but there are two issues with growing them. One is getting about a million plants growing in each cell (or whatever you are growing them in) and having a hard time separating them. Last year, I mixed them with sand to stratify them and put them in a ziploc in the fridge and I thought I could just sprinkle a little of the sand on each cell but I ended up with way too many in each cell. Think Chia Pet kind of thick.

I think this year, I might try separating them out into groups of 5 or 6 and stratifying them in something small where each group stays separate, then putting each little group in a cell.

The other issue they are soooooooooooo, sooooooooooooooo, sooooooooooooo tiny as seedling that you have to be super careful when watering them not to float them up out of the medium, but conversely, they like to croak if they think it's at all dry, so that's the balancing act.

I think bottom watering seems to work fairly well, just keep the cells sitting in water but it might also require some misting to keep them damp.

Once you get them past the world's smallest seedling stage and they have several sets of true leaves, they seem pretty easy to deal with and when it's time to transplant they don't get too temperamental but boy that cotyledon stage seems to last forever with them. 100% worth it though! Tied with wine cups for absolute favorite Texas Native.

So, if you would like to try your hand at this, send me a DM and I can give you the info to send me a stamped envelope. You'll need a small ziploc in the envelope to keep them from escaping into the mail, they are that tiny.

I'll keep taking requests until I think I'll run out of seeds or I get get tired of it, so drop me a line if you'd like some.

Bought at million plants at SFA sale then went out of town for a week, so now off to start working my way through getting them in the ground.

Happy native planting!

Its falling over. Or should I wait until Winter? If I trim it how?

9B I have a couple of old purple lantana that never blooms, likely in too much shade, on a curb I'd like to try to move/save. I tried to dig up one but it withered before I could plant it (peak of the heat and I moved too slow...). But wonder if it's even likely these can survive transplanting?

I love to experiment with natives that are never found in nurseries. This species grows so well in a garden setting. My photo does not do it justice how breathtaking they are. Fairly drought tolerant too!

I could not be happier with the transformation of my yard from sad rockscape to a luscious green living sanctuary complete with an arroyo for drainage, sprinklers, and new walkway. It was finished November 2025. The saying is Sleep, Creep, Leap, but I feel like my one year old native garden is already leaping! Mostly shade-loving plants under canopy of oaks. The fluffy carpet of sedge is my favorite! Photos of before, after, and almost a year later. Cred to Heather Lyle of Native Knowledge Lanscape Consulting!

Wow

The Texas Sage in my area is breathtaking.