Herself’s Houston Garden

At first I thought my sparkle berries had given up hope of ever seeing the sun or having dry roots again and committed suicide. But further inspection in the yard today shows the deer have had made a gourmet dinner of my garden. The sparkle berries, azalea , Agapanthus and roses were all eaten. What can you do? There are incriminating hoof prints all through the soggy lawn. The plants all look like they will recover.

The web building super tiny bugs have covered one of the Yaupons with webbing. Funny how they like the Yaupons. So I had to climb up the ladder, scrape off what I could reach and give the tree a spray with oil. It usually takes me two to three passes to get them cleared off for the season.

Sunshine two days running now. I think that is record for this year. I’m hoping we are out of that rain every day cycle now.

The squirrels broke into the tree mounted feeder this week. That’s two feeders in one month! Blasted rodents. I can’t really complain, I had two years of use and no squirrels in the feeder. The spring had just gotten too old. The new feeder is holding up well. More so because the blue jays and mocking birds have discovered there are raisins in it and have taken to strafing the squirrels when they are around. The blue jay in particular dislikes the squirrels. The enemy of my enemy …. I made sure to restock the raisins in the feeder today.

More information:
Yaupon holly
Squirrels/ Tree Bird Feeder
New Bird Feeder
Agapanthus
Yaupon Holly

I attended a plant talk a few months back and the person giving talk made a point of discussing how easy it is to grow Comfrey down here. She said you just toss out back and it grows, and you can cut the leaves up into pieces and each of the pieces will grow.

Well by the end of the talk we were all terrified of Comfrey. She sold out all the other plants she brought for sale, I don’t think a single Comfrey plant sold.

What have you planted that you regret? is a some what current thread over on the Garden Web Forums Texas section and it got me to thinking about that talk and what is invasive in Houston. Reading the garden thread it is clear one gardener’s behemoth is another gardener’s friend.

Down here there is no winter die back to pommel your mistakes.

General rules of thumb:

1) Anything growing wild near you will love your garden. Regular water, fertilizer and it’ll go to town on you.

2) Beware of gardener’s bearing gifts. If she has so much of it she is giving it away that should be a warning sign.

3) If it is really cheap to buy that is because it grows fast and it is easy to grow.

4 ) Vines should always be treated with suspicion.

Then of course there is invasive as in taking over your garden and invasive as in crowding out native species. I couldn’t find a comprehensive list of invasive species in Houston, only bits and pieces across several websites. Here are invasive plants I found listed on various sites:

Alligatorweed ( Alternanthera philoxeroides )
Balloon vine ( Cardiospermum halicacabum )
Brazilian peppertree ( Schinus terebinthifolius )
Broomrape ( Orobanche ramosa )
Camelthorn ( Alhagi camelorum )
Chinese Tallow Tree ( Triadica sebifera L. )
Dalmation Toadflax ( Linaria dalmatica L. )
Deeprooted sedge ( Cyerus entrerianus )
Distaff thistle ( Carthamus lanatus )
Downy Brome ( Bromus tectorum L. )
Eurasian watermilifoil ( Myriophyllum spicatum )
Giant duckweed ( Spirodela oligorrhiza )
Giant reed ( Arundo donax )
Hedge bindweed ( Calystegia sepium )
Hoary Cress ( Cardaria draba L. )
Hydrilla ( Hydrilla verticillata )
Japanese dodder ( Cuscuta japonica )
Japanese Honeysuckle ( Lonicera japonica Thunb. )
Johnsongrass ( Sorghum halepense L. )
Kudzu ( Pueraria montana Lour. Merr. )
Lagarosiphon ( Lagarosiphon major )
Multiflora rose ( Rosa multflora Thunb. )
Musk Thistle ( Carduus nutans L. )
Paperbark ( Melaleuca quinquenervia )
Privet ( Ligustrum spp. )
Purple loosestrife ( Lythrum salicaria )
Rooted waterhyacinth ( Eichhomia azurea )
Russian Knapweed ( Acroptilon repens ( L. ) DC )
Russian Olive ( Elaeagnus angustifolia L. )
Saltcedar ( Tamarix spp. )
Salvinia ( Salvinia spp. )
Serrated tussock ( Nassella trichotoma )
St. Johnswort ( Hypericum perforatum )
Scotch Thistle ( Onopordum acanthium L. )
Spotted Knapweed ( Centaurea biebersteinni DC )
Swingle Tree of Heaven ( Ailanthus altissima ( P. Mill. )
Saltcedar ( Tamarisk )
Torpedograss ( Panicum repens )
Tropical soda apple ( Solanum viarum )
Water spinach ( lpomoea aquatica )
Water hyacinth ( Eichhomia crassipes )
Water lettuce ( Pistia stratiotes )
Whitetop ( Cardaria spp. )
Yellow Star Thistle ( Centaurea solstitialis L. )
Yellow Toadflax ( Linaria vulgaris P. Mill. )

What to do when you find invasives in your garden or plant harmless looking plants that later decide to conquer the world? Yank them if you can, if not weed killer is your friend. Most weed killers kill by contact. So plants you wish to keep can be covered while you perform chemical warfare on the trouble makers.

More information
Invasive Species: Plants
Invasive Notes: Invasive Species and Sustainable Landscapes

About a month after we moved in here I gave the yard guy a list of plants to pick up at the local nursery for me. On the list was ‘Bleeding Heart’, this is what he brought me back. While it isn’t the traditional Bleeding Heart we have in New England that I was expecting it’s a pretty cool plant.

It is a fast ever green vine native to Mexico. It can reach 40′ I’ve been sharply pruning him.

It blooms from early June through late fall down here. This one bloomed year round for me.

It prefers sun to light shade, I have two of them in heavy shade. It prefers moist soil but tolerates dry soil.

I saw some of these in Hawaii and they grew into bush forms rather than vines. I may try to convince mine to grow that way.

I find it is one of the first plants to show distress when I need to fertilize, so fertilize this plant often.

More information:
Floridata: Antigonon leptopus

Pictures:
Coral Vine, Photo Blog