Herself’s Houston Garden

I received an email from Buchanan’s they want you to know:

All is well — even without power!

Buchanan’s Native Plants will be open
for business starting Friday,
our usual hours, 9 to 6.
We’ll be happy to help you rebuild
your garden, order large trees and shrubs, or whatever you need.
We’re ready to make
special orders for you.

Phones are still out
so just come on in!
We’d love to see you!

And remember –
Fall is the ideal time to plant!

We were all saddened to hear of the fire at Cornelius Nurseries last Sunday on Voss Road.

I received an email from them today.

Plans are already underway to rebuild our Voss Road store, but in the meantime, come visit us at 1755 FM 1960 West and 1200 N. Dairy Ashford. You will find the same high level of service and quality, plus you will see the familiar faces of many employees from Voss Road.

We regret the inconvenience caused by the Sunday morning fire, which destroyed our Cornelius store on Voss Road, but appreciate your loyalty. We will keep you posted on the progress of rebuilding that nursery.

Please join us at our store on Dairy Ashford or FM 1960 this Friday from 5-7 pm for Happy Hour and enjoy an additional 20% off your entire purchase. We are still here to serve your gardening needs!

Thank you for your continued support.
Your Cornelius Team

I’ll be looking forward to visiting them again this Fall.

I first ran across Jerry’s Jungle online before I moved to Houston and thought it was wonderful. I’ve been here two and a half years and just recently had a chance to visit. Jerry’s Jungle is only open to the public a few times a year. This is not a garden that will endear you to your neighbors or the HOA, but gardeners will be enchanted.

Jerry’s garden is full of wonderful plants, most are tropical and many collected from around the world on Jerry’s and his wife’s travels.

They have plant sales a few times a year, in April, July and October. I scored a ton of cool loot. My favorites are the sugar cane and castor plants. If you are putting together a tropical garden or looking for unusual plants attend one of Jerry’s sales. You won’t find better prices anywhere.

I recently attended a talk on ‘Creatures of the Night’ by Gary and Kathy Clark.

Here’s a few interesting things about local critters you might not know. 80%-95% of all Ruby Throated Hummingbirds come through Houston on their migration south in the fall. That is the massive crowd we see coming through in Sept. Rocky mountain hummingbirds winter over down here. During very cold nights they go into a tupor state to survive the cold.

Owls are very intelligent birds and totally evolved for night living. Their large eyes can take in more light than most birds. Owl’s eyes are fixed in the sockets and don’t move as ours do, which is probably why they can turn their heads so far. They can focus on things near and far simultaneously. The beaks are recessed and the the face is parabolic shaped, better to send sound to those large ears of theirs. Their ears are not symmetrically placed, one is further forward than the other, the better to triangulate sound. Great horned, barn owls and screech owls are common in this part of Houston. To find them sleeping during the day look on branches of trees, very close to the trunks.

Night hawks can be found here in parking lots, on or near the lights at dusk.

Raccoons live in hollowed out logs and under decks. They are diurnal so you’ll see them both day and night. One of the most unusual things about raccoons is that they wash their food. It appears they may also have liberal leanings, I’m told a good way to remove them from you attic or from under your deck is to force them to listen to talk radio.

We have grey foxes here. Foxes will eat just about anything; carrion, small critters and fruit and vegetables. We also have coyotes, they too eat anything including carrion, critters, fruits and vegetables. As do skunks, who knew all these creatures where omnivores? Skunks mating season is Feb. down here which is why we find and smell them so much more at that time of year.

I spent four years in Texas before I saw a live armadillo. We finally ran across a live one at the edge of the woods in Brazo’s Bend Park a few months back. They are also day and night critters and are found rooting in leave mixtures in the woods. Now that I know better where to look I’m hoping to spot more of them.
Moths and butterflies are pretty much the same insects, with butterflies ruling the day and moths the night. Often though moths do not have mouths. Once they reach moth stage they live only to reproduce and die. Moths also tend to have feathered antennae.

See also:
Hummingbird time
Bats
Butterfly gardening