Herself’s Houston Garden

I recently attended a talk at Mercer on growing cactus and succulents in Houston. If you haven’t attended any talks at Mercer do consider it. They’d love to see you and I learn a great deal each time I attend.

Most cactus prefer drier environments than we have in Houston. While they all prefer it dry, not all of the cactus and succulents enjoy our heat. Winter rains are the biggest threat to cactus growing here. Wet and cold together will cause many cactus to rot.

Cactus and succulents differ only slightly. All cactus are succulents, not all succulents are cactus. Cactus store water in their stem, succulents store water in the leaves, stem or both.

Cactus have tufts of hair or small spines at the base of every spine, succulents do not. While you can strip a cactus bare of spines with out hurting the plant. It is similar to leaf removal. You can not do so with a succulent. Succulent thorns are connected to the stem tissue. Removing them will tear the stem that transports nutrients through the plant.

Cactus have spines which are leaves which have evolved to a more efficient shape for the climate. The spines offer protection from critters looking for water in the desert and also provide shade for the plant. The more spines on a cactus the more sun it likely needs.

Some succulents have roots that spread along the surface to collect water, some use tap roots to find deep water.

Cactus originated only in North and South America, succulents are found worldwide.

Sand and or soil mixed with larger rocks/mulch or other material that will let water drain works best as a planting medium. Be sure to slope and raise the bed to keep water from collecting near the plants.

Mealy bug occasionally bother succulents, treat with insecticidial soaps. Fire ants will some times build a mound right over your succulent, burying it. Treat them with your favorite fire ant treatment.

Succulent gardens look best and least annoy your neighbors and the homeowners associations when you use several plants of different heights, textures and colors together. Try to use one or a few large plants, then fill in with smaller plants. Also include some dry plants that aren’t succulents. Wild flower bunches blend well. The Succulent gardens pool at Flickr has a nice collection of photos for ideas.

See also:
Agaves
Soapweed yucca
Aloe
Aloe rust
Tigertoothed Aloe

All plants do well in great soil with the right amount of sun and water. Home landscapes rarely give us the right location with out a great deal of time and money. Sometimes it’s just easier to go with the flow.

Here are easiest plants, that I’ve enjoyed for your most difficult areas.
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Shade/Dry plants

Snake plants
Sanservieria trifasciata

Shell Ginger
Alpinia zerumbet

Gardenia
Gardenia

Toad Lily
Tricytris Formsana

Peacock Ginger
Kaempheria Pulchria

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Shade/Wet

Gardenia
Gardenia

Tree Philodendron
Philodendron Bipinnatifidum

Society Garlic
Alliaceae Tublighia Violacea

Philodendron xanadu
Philodendron Xanadu

Alocasia Metallica
Colocasia Fontanesii

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Sun/Dry plants

Angel’s Trumpet
Brugmansia

Mexican petunia
Ruellia Brittoniana

Firecracker
Hamelia Patens

Cat’s Whiskers
Orthosiphon Aristatus

Century plants
Agave Americana

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Sun/Wet

Angel’s Trumpet
Brugmansia

Flag Iris
Iris Pseudacorus

Tree Fern
Cyathea Australis

Lion’s Ear
Leonotis

Castor Bean
Ricinus Communis

I’ve grown staghorn ferns off and on as houseplants. When I went on a garden club garden tour in April I saw several growing in people’s gardens outside. Once settled in they will grown outside here. Some were mounted on boards and fences, I decided to try mine in a tree nook.

Staghorns produce two types of leaves: basal, and foliar. The basal (nest) fronds are the brown ones that the fern uses to hang onto something, foliar are the green fronds. The basal collects rain water and debri to break down and feed to the plant. The foliar fronds are the fertile ones and you’ll see spores appear on the fronds occasionally.

Place some moss or dirt between the basal frond and the mount. If the moss or soil fades away replace it with more.

Water when fronds are dry. The older fronds tolerate dry weather better than the younger ones.

Grow in part to full shade.

Protect from frost and freezing.

Native to Africa, Asia, Australia and South America. There are 16 known platycerium species all growing in temperate rain forests. The staghorns produce the two leaves.

Propagation is difficult, best done by division of pups from mother plant once it has its own basal leaves.

Due to their popularity they are disappearing from the rain forests making it all the more important to establish some plants here.

I saw my first stapelia at the San Antonio botanical gardens and it was love at first sight. But it was in a green house so I only thought of it as an indoor plant. Later I ran into some in hanging baskets at the Conroe Extension office, again in a green house. I found some online at Logees, potted them up and left them out all winter. While they were not thrilled they made it through and they are going in the ground shortly.

They are very easy to grow, put them in full sun, water lightly. They may be grown in pots, the ground here or in hanging pots. Mine bloomed frequently over the summer. The flowers are about 6″ across.

These are carrion flowers giving off the scent of rotting meat to attract flies for pollination. So it’s probably not something you want planted by the front door.

Stapelia is native to South Africa, and surprising to me are members of the milkweed family.

Propagation: Snap off a stalk and plant.