Herself’s Houston Garden

We attended the ‘Garden Faire’ at Mercer last month and this is one of the plants we picked up. When it comes into bloom I’ll replace this picture with one of it in bloom.

The flowers are white and shaped like upside down musical notes, hence the name. This shrub will reach about 4′ tall and 3′ wide and once settled in will bloom off and on all year. Blooms are in clusters and have bright red stamens.

While it can handle full sun, afternoon shade is recommended for this plant.
Musical Notes will bloom in sun or shade and is drought tolerant once established. The preference is for rich, moist soil.

It is easy to grow and a fast growing plant.

Native to Nigeria.

** Note: this plant is extremely cold sensitive - protect when temperatures go below 40′.

San Antonio Botanical Gardens are only a few miles from downtown. To my regret I only had an hour to spend there, I could easily and happily have spent half a day there.

There are several theme gardens, five green houses with different gardens inside and several small cottages set up with different ‘water wise’ gardens. I highly recommend a trip if you are out that way.

I believe this is ‘Angel’s Trumpet’? No matter, I’ll find out, I decided I must acquire one after seeing this gorgeous plant. ( note: I did find one at the Mercer Garden Faire and have it planted out back. )

This too is on my list of things to purchase. The common name is ‘Cat’s Whiskers’. ( totally appropriate ) It was in a water wise garden and bordered on the back by knock out type roses.

This is one of the green houses. This is totally full of desert plants. Each green house had its own theme.

This is the tropical plant green house. Is that Elephant Ear too cool or what? And those Staghorn Ferns are amazing too.

This is one of the themed outdoor areas, Texas Southwest Native Plants.

The gardens are not large, much smaller than our Mercer Gardens, but every inch of the gardens was put to good use and every garden was spectacular. There was a ‘blind’ theme garden that was full of herbs and other interestingly scented plants. I thought that was a very nice idea. If you are any where even remotely close to this garden I recommend a trip.

San Antonio Botanical Gardens

This plant is also known as Great Plains Yucca, Dagger plant, and Spanish Bayonet.

It prefers dry, rocky areas and will spread extensively given the right growing conditions, roots can grow sideways as far as 30′. Be sure you like this plant before you plant it. Removal may be impossible once it is established. It is very drought tolerant and prefers full sun. This yucca will reach about 2′ tall and about 3′ across when grown.

Flowers will be white on stalks like traditional yucca but closer to the ground. Flowering is late May through July. Flowers close during the hottest part of the day and open at night to be pollinated by moths. The pollen is extremely heavy and sticky and is not carried by the wind but only by the moths. Female moths form balls of pollen which they take to other flowers and use to protect the egg they implant deep in the flower.

Roots form a soap like foam when wet. Yucca is the state flower of New Mexico.

I’m told this plant prefers some shade and blooms in the spring and fall down here. It is a native plant and therefore it is easy to grow. It will form a 9′ plant along the coast, but by the time you reach Nacogdoches it tops out at about 5′ in height. It may die back with frost but will return when the weather warms up. Hummingbirds love this plant as do bees and butterflies. The name comes from the shape of the flower whose petals form an interesting spiral pattern.

Blooming is from May through November. Pruning should be done late fall and then heavily mulch for the winter.

It has been know to grow near swamps and in very dry areas. Water amounts should not matter once this plant has settled in.

The crinkles you see in the leaves in the above picture are because the nursery had this plant sitting in full sun. It is also prone to mold in full sun. Plant it in part to full shade for best performance.

The leaves of Turk’s cap are used in herbal medicines. It has fruit which is edible, some bird or critter will likely make off with it from your bush.

[ Mexican Turk's Cap will not survive frosts. It is similar to Texas Turk's cap but with longer flowers and smaller leaves ]