Lantana

Turk's cap

Iris

Passionflower

Mealy blue sage

American beautyberry

Plants with a past

Easy-care options for today's landscapes

           In wintertime, alongside my grandmother’s house in Houston, poinsettias arched over my head.

In summer, a single cluster of lantana blooms from Grandmother’s front yard made a perfect bouquet on my doll house’s supper table.

Coral Honeysuckle

Sometimes, just the sight of a nearly forgotten plant takes us back many seasons. But have you ever wondered why your grandparents chose the plants they did?

The answer usually is: for their beauty first, and their endurance second.

This becomes clear when you pass an abandoned house and spot a 40-year-old clump of colorful irises thriving in the spring – with no help from anyone. No chemicals. No watering. No nothing.

Typically, the plants our grandparents grew were the most hardy, easy-care and beautiful ones available.

With that in mind, we can look to the past for tried-and-true plants to use in our own North Central Texas gardens.

Randy and Sue Weston are surrounded by plants of the past – and they have learned from them.

Several years ago, the former Dallas accountants purchased a historic home on 10 acres across the road from Weston Gardens in Bloom, the southeast Fort Worth nursery they own.

People are starting to figure out that maybe some of the older things that our grandparents did were probably better in the long run for our lifestyle because we don’t have the time today to take care of all those (newer) things,” Mr. Weston says.

Our grandparents didn’t have time for lots of intervention, says Mr. Weston. “They had to plant things that took care of themselves.” Native and adapted plants fill the bill – at least better than many other plants imported from other parts of the world. The natives resist diseases better and require less water, he says.

The Westons’ house once was the home of Leon and Peggy Bandy. He was a prominent Fort Worth architect. She was a dedicated gardener. The house and its surrounding gardens were regarded as something of a showplace. It didn’t hurt that the Bandys built many walkways and retaining walls of stone, extended a swinging bridge over the creek and erected a “ship” made of stone.

About 20 years ago, the Bandys sold the property to another couple, who worked to restore the house. The grounds got away from those former owners, the Westons say, noting that they keep up with the yard work with the help of maintenance crews.

Even before a Bandy niece appeared with photos of the grounds as they appeared in the ‘30s, the Westons intended to restore the gardens. They say they were intrigued and educated by what survived the period of minimal maintenance.

Not all are native plants, but the survivors obviously handled drought and heavy rain, sweltering summers and sudden northers. We know they probably did it without added water, because the sprinkler system broke.

Some of the less-adapted plants didn’t make it. An entire rose garden that featured hybrid teas was wiped out.

Mostly the survivors are natives, volunteers and plants chosen during the years the garden was planned and actively tended, the 1930s to '50s. The selections probably mirrored smaller Texas yards and gardens of their day.

Today, however, yards are likely to be large expanses of lawn with a few shrubs along the home’s foundation and – if former property owners were wise – a few trees.

As a society, “we cast off a lot of these old things because the marketers did a good job of selling us that they’d come up with the perfect solution,” says Mr. Weston. “They went out of style.”

Why? People follow trends in plants as well as clothing, Mr. Weston says. And like clothes, sometimes the old favorites can come back into vogue.

Of course, some plants that filled a need for our grandparents, like mulberry and chinaberry trees, aren’t the best choices available today.

“They had the chicken yards, so they planted the mulberry to shade and provide the fruit for the chickens,” says Mr. Weston, adding that the chicken house on the property has a fruiting mulberry at the back.

“They planted the chinaberry for fast growth and fast shade,” says Mr. Weston. With a whole prairie to populate, tree selection wasn’t as crucial. Today, many criticize both the mulberry and chinaberry for several characteristics: they are fast-growing but relatively short-lived, their roots are invasive and their wood is weak. Both are messy, depositing debris and berries under their limbs.

Many of the other plants that shaded and decorated our grandparents’ yards are great options today, however. (see “Plants with a History of Success”) Even though these tough, adapted plants can survive with minimal care once they are established, many of them are hard to find. It takes extra effort for a nursery to carry some of these selections, Mr. Weston observes.

For one thing, each plant’s preferences in the market area must be researched. Just because a plant is native to Texas doesn’t mean it’s easy to grow in North Central Texas, he says. Just because plants of your childhood thrived in Houston or some other place doesn’t mean they will work here.

“You have to really home in on what our soils are and what our climate variations are,” he says. These differ significantly even across Texas for example, while the mountain laurel makes a fine tree for the Hill Country, North Central Texas winters tend to be too harsh for it.

“You have to determine the natives or acclimated plants that work for us,” says Mr. Weston. “You don’t get it off the shelf and sell it and it works for everybody.”

Although natives have developed a following during the past few years, only a few North Texas area nurseries currently carry a full line of them, says Mr. Weston. More natives probably are sold in the Austin area than anyplace else in Texas, he says. Other area nurseries that stock natives include Kings Creek Gardens, Texas Blooms, Mother Nature Garden Center and North Haven Gardens.

These hardy plants don’t tend to look as pretty in the pot as some traditional nursery mainstays might, the Westons say. Weston Gardens includes demonstration gardens so people can see what the plants look like in the ground.

Kings Creek and North Haven also feature demonstration plots. The Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden showcases some of these plants in a section called Mimi’s Garden, Mr. Weston says.

In pots, the native and acclimated plants are trying to survive, “reacting like they would in nature” to stressful conditions, says Mr. Weston. “A lot of what you see in that pot is not what you’re going to get when they’re planted.”

“Somebody’ll come in and they’ll say, ‘That doesn’t have many leaves on it and it's kind of yellow-looking,’” says Mr. Weston. “Well, it’ll green up when it gets into the ground and get real thick, but if they can’t see it planted, they cannot envision it.”

And it is difficult to imagine at first. But memories of summer nights with cicada serenades and lightening bugs, of homemade ice cream and the perfume of a bloom in grandmother’s flower bed certainly help.

Betsy Simnacher is a Dallas-area free-lance writer.

Our grandparents grew purple coneflower, mealy blue sage and other perennials for gardens that don't require excessive amounts of fertilizer, water and care once the plants get established.

·    Members of the salvia family are exceptional in this area. These perennials are tough in the heat, prefer dry weather, bloom all summer and are available in various colors.

     Mr. Weston’s favorite salvia is Salvia Greggii. “The one drawback is it gets a little leggy, it stretches out, gets a little woody – but if you shear it once or twice during the growing season, it’ll keep it bushier and looking nicer,” he says. Salvias usually reach 2 to 3 feet in height.

Other salvias the Westons are partial to include Salvia coccinea, which will bloom in shade (requiring only an hour or two of full sun daily) and mealy blue sage, a salvia with silvery foliage and nicely contrasting blue blooms.

·    Hypericum is a shrub with yellow flowers from May to October and crimson foliage in fall. It grows in a mounding pattern, varieties are available in heights from a ground cover to those that reach 3 to 4 feet. Hypericum tends to burn in the hot west sun. It does better in partially shaded areas.

·    The four or five indigenous and adapted varieties of Mexican petunia produce a lavender bloom. “It’s such an easy plant for most people to grow,” says Mr. Weston. These petunias grow in any condition – shade or sun, moist or dry. Different varieties reach different heights, ranging from 2 to 3 feet. Probably old-timers relied on the tall ones, Mr. Weston says. “They’ve come up reliably for years and years” on the Weston property, he says.

·    Purple coneflower, a perennial, prefers sun and good drainage. Some customers complain that the pink and yellow blooms clash, says Mr. Weston. Hybridized versions offer white blooms and shorter plants; the native purple coneflower reaches 3 feet.

·    Ferny yarrow foliage gives gardens a decorative look. It is an evergreen perennial “if we don’t have a real bad winter,” says Mrs. Weston. Natives usually have white blooms; hybridized versions have different colored flowers, like red, pink and yellow. The blooms last about two months in the springtime. Yarrow likes full sun, heat and good drainage. Yarrows bred to grow to heights of 1 to 4 feet are available.

·    Iris is a favorite perennial with a short blooming cycle. “I use them more for a change in texture,” says Mr. Weston. “I like that sword-like frond.” The Westons grow Louisiana irises around their ponds, because these irises will grow in swampy conditions. Thousands of irises of “every color you can imagine” (probably introduced in the 1920s) dot the property. Many are 18- to 24-inch-tall bearded irises.

·    Oxeye daisy produces a bloom that’s “vivid white with a yellow center,” says Mr. Weston. “It’s really a showy plant in the springtime.” People complain that it gets too tall and flops over, but foot-tall hybridized versions will still produce the nice flower. Some gardeners may fertilize oxeye daisy too much, he says. “They respond to that heavy nitrogen and really put on a big flush of green and growth…if they were left in a leaner environment, they wouldn’t get as big and floppy.”

·    One well-acclimated plant that looks good in a container is sedum. Photos prove that sedum has been growing in urns on the Westons’ property since the 1930s and 40s, says Mrs. Weston. “It’s in the cacti family – some people call them ‘hen and chicks’ because new little roots come up and make other plants,” says Mr. Weston. Sedum is traditionally a fall bloomer.

·    Passionflower makes a good ground cover; its large purple flowers attract butterflies. It excels at erosion control, but be aware that it is not evergreen. – Betsy Simnacher

Try these hardy favorites for North Central Texas

Many plants of the past will grow well in the Dallas area. To get you started, we’ve compiled a list of options.

For the most part, the following plants flourish if you plant them in fall, giving them time to establish root systems before cold weather arrives.

The plants are adapted to grow on the prairie. Most love full sun; exceptions are noted below. Soil that drains well is important. “None of them want to stand in water for very long,” says Randy Weston, co-owner of Weston gardens in Bloom, a Fort Worth nursery specializing in native plants.

The following plants, roughly arranged in order of size, are on Randy and Sue Weston’s list of favorites. A good portion of these plants, including vitex, sedum, bush honeysuckle, turk’s-cap and Mexican petunia (also called ruellia), had been growing on the Westons’ property for years when the couple bought it.

·    Persimmon fruit attracts possums on the Weston property. Humans like the trees for their fall color and for their shade, says Mr. Weston. Plus, “there’s not a better tree to bring the birds in,” he says. Persimmons grow up to 50 to 60 feet tall.

·    Vitex, sometimes called lilac chaste tree, has lilac-like purple flowers and herbal-scented leaves. Vitex have survived for years on highway medians, so they can’t be as susceptible to cold as some people say, reasons Mr. Weston. Choose trees grown in this area, instead of those imported from points south. The vitex grows to around 20 to 25 feet tall, and spreads up to 25 feet.

·    Althea, also known as Rose-of-Sharon, is a member of the hibiscus family. This deciduous tree is a small ornamental, reaching about 10 to 15 feet tall. “I can tolerate a few aphids on it, because the flowers are so large,” says Mr. Weston.

·    Of course, there’s hydrangea. The Westons like oak leaf hydrangea – he likes the crimson foliage in the fall and she likes the spring blooms. As this deciduous shrub ages, its stalks develop a handsome cinnamon brown, two-toned look. Plant in a spot protected from the west sun.

·    Bush honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima) may be the ultimate historical plant. “People haven’t seen it for years,” says Mr. Weston. In February or March, The honeysuckle’s white flowers are an early harbinger of spring: “Really, when nothing else is happening in the early winter, that plant’s starting to bloom and smells good,” he says. This shrub can grow to 8 to 10 feet, he says.

·    Coral honeysuckle is a good alternative to the “overly rampant” Japanese honeysuckle vine, says Mr. Weston. “Plus, it has these wonderful red trumpet flowers on it all spring and summer’” he says. “It’s really a nice, strong evergreen”.

·    American beautyberry is a deciduous native shrub that comes into its own in the fall. Tight clusters of purple berries attract birds. Its branches make fine additions to holiday arrangements. It can spread up to 5 feet wide and grow up to 7 feet tall, but you can tame it by clipping it back each year, says Mr. Weston.

·    Our grandparents planted lilacs, although they prefer the cooler nights of the Panhandle, says Mr. Weston “The Persian (lilac) works,” he says.” It does look a little ragged by the end of the summer season…There’s just so much torture it can take, with our high humidities and hot nights.” Provide light shade from the intense sun of Western exposures.

·    Turk’s-cap has been growing on the Westons’ property for 50 to 60 years, says Mr. Weston. “It’s another one of those 'you can’t lose’-type perennials,” he says. It grows in shade or sun and likes its soil “ a little on the dry side,” he says, although it will grow taller and the leaves bigger with more moisture. Turk’s-cap has distinctive red flowers that attract hummingbirds and butterflies. It typically grows about 1 ¼ to 2 feet tall.

Vitex, sometimes called lilac chaste tree, has lilac-like purple flowers and herbal-scented leaves.