Herself’s Houston Garden

The Crassula Gollum I planted a couple of years back has done so well with so little effort I thought I’d try another crassula.

This one was acquired at Mercer. I picked it up at the succulents talk, but they had them for sale at the summer sale as well.

It is like a miniature pine forest, I have it planted as a ground cover near the front door. I planted it a couple of weeks into the current heat wave/drought and you can see in the top view photo where it’s a bit wilted from the heat. Perhaps it’ll handle the heat better after it has settled in?

It also prefers a far more acidic soil than we have here ( our is about 8, it prefers 5.5 ).

While it is recommended for full sun, they don’t mean full sun Houston. In Houston and other warm, sunny areas some shade is needed.

Flowers are extremely tiny, yellow and heavily scented.

Height can reach 6″.

Once it is established it will need very little water and easily suffers from over watering.

Heat, freeze and drought tolerant, slow to get going.

Originally from southern Africa.

Watch for mealy bugs.

Propagate from soft woody stem cuttings or from offshoots.

I purchased this plant at Mercer when I attended the talk on succulents. I have to say cactus and succulents have been slow to grow on me and until this past year or so I avoided them.

I wanted a low ground cover for near the front door. This spot gets afternoon sun and it pretty dry. It should form a dense, silvery mat.

It is supposed to be an annual, but so are many of the perennials growing in my garden. We’ll see. It is supposed to be hardy in zones 7-11.

Sedums love full sun, this gets about a half of a day of full sun.

Watering should be on the dry side, moist to dry.

The sedum is at full height and should spread to cover the bed it is planted in. Grown in a container it will spread down over the edges.

Flowers are yellow and very tiny and usually appear in July.

Height only to 2″, the plant first grows out, then up.

Native of southern Japan in the mountains where it grows on both trees and the ground.

I planted this a few weeks into our drought/heat wave and it’s settled in and started to grow. Sedums are also recommended as ‘living mulches’ live plants that protect the soil from the heat of the day and help to keep the soil moisture from evaporating.

Propagate from runner cuttings.

Note: died after a couple of months of unknown causes.

I found this one at a Jerry’s Jungle sale last spring. It was the bamboo like stems that got me. The staff at the sale were more impressed with the root beer smell given off when you crumble the leaves. Some botanists claim it smell like anise.

Upon getting it home and reading up on it, I found it listed as invasive by several gardeners. Cool, I have a spot where nothing grows so I planted it there. It’s done very well and not been invasive. It spreads – be careful where you plant it. This spot is part/mostly shade. This plant prefers shade.

Root beer plant also prefers a moist to damp soil, I’m finding it is doing well in a slightly dry area despite our current drought so perhaps that’s the key to keeping it from being invasive. Watch for suckers, that’s its favorite way to spread.

This is a shrub which can grow to 9′ tall width should be about the same as height once it is settled in.

It is a tropical, It’s too soon to tell how it will do in the winter. It is rated to grow as far north as zone 8a so it should be ok. It died back to the ground in the winter, reappeared in late March.

It has not even wilted under the heat wave so I’m sure heat is not a problem. It did die back to the ground in the winter, then came back in the spring.

Flower are tiny, white and clustered and can appear year round.

Propagation is done by division.

I’m told the leaves are used in cooking, other sources say all parts of this plant are poisonous.

Native to Mexico and central America where it grows along the edges of forests and open sites in moist soil.