Don't mess with Texas (plants, that is)
It’s been years since I lived and gardened in Texas (Gulf Coast region, south of Houston). There’s plenty I don’t miss, including the dense blanket of sticky heat that descends on the area between late April and October, the alternating floods and droughts and seasonal risk of tropical storms and hurricanes. What I do have considerable nostalgia for are many of the plants I grew there, including some which have found new homes in my central Kentucky garden.
My first experience with Crinums was in Texas, where I grew the spidery white-flowered Crinum americanum and the reddish-pink hybrid “Ellen Bosanquet”, both of which I acquired at the annual Garden Club of Houston's Bulb and Plant Mart. Crinums are revered in that part of the world for their beauty, fragrance and toughness (horticulturalist William Welch once said of crinums, “None have ever died”). I used to see them growing unattended in vacant lots. My collection has expanded considerably since those days. “Ellen Bosanquet” still grows and flowers for me, along with others including Crinum “Pink Princess”, C. bulbispermum (Orange River Lily) and Crinum x powellii. Surprisingly (to me, anyway) these Crinums adapt well outside the hot, humid lower South, surviving winter lows down into the single digits and even below zero when well-mulched, flowering mostly in June and July. They have been untroubled by disease and insects in my experience, tolerating intermittent dry conditions when established. Their only flaw, if you can call it one, is that their foliage is undistinguished and can take up a fair amount of room.
A few years back I was browsing a nursery in Austin, TX when I spotted something interesting - an Abutilon identified simply as “Patrick’s abutilon”. It had the typical maple-like leaves and was sporting yellow-orange bell-shaped flowers heavily veined in red. I took one home, intending to grow it as a house plant. For a few years I used it in a temperennial border in Ohio, where it grew to six feet over the summer, flowering for just a couple of weeks before hard frost. After moving to Kentucky, I risked overwintering it in the border, and it came through a couple of winters that dropped into the single digits, heavily mulched and returning with sprouts in late May. Here, plants ultimately top eight feet and provide several weeks of bloom before plants are cut down by cold; plants survive a few degrees of frost but are knocked down by temps in the mid-20s. It looks like “Patrick’s abutilon” is identical to Abutilon pictum, a South American species that has reportedly naturalized in Central America.
Tecoma stans, commonly called Esperanza, has trumpet-shaped bright yellow flowers on a shrub 3-6 feet tall and 3-4 feet wide. It's native to Texas near San Antonio and into the Trans-Pecos. Its range extends west to Arizona and New Mexico, down into Central and South America and also in south Florida and the Caribbean. It is reputedly root-hardy to zone 8, which makes it an intriguing possibility here in Kentucky zone 6b, where other zone 8 refugees have overwintered. T. stans is easily raised from seed and cuttings. My three plants have been growing lustily outdoors since early summer; we'll see when and if they flower. T. stans thrives in full sun, high summer heat and humidity and isn't picky about soil, as long as drainage is decent.
Hamelia patens (firebush) is one of those perennials that loves prolonged heat and thus is perfect for Texas summers. It has slender, tubular orange-red flowers in clusters which attract hummingbirds and butterflies. Red berries form, later turning a glossy black. A cool thing about this plant is that its leaves turn bright red in fall. In frost-free areas H. patens makes a large shrub, 10 feet or more in height and half that in width. Where it dies back to the ground in winter (it's hardy to zone 9) it can grow several feet tall in a season. When I gardened in Ohio, I was pleased to find firebush plants at a local specialty nursery. Installed in their preferred full sun location, growth was less vigorous than what I'd experienced in Texas and bloom unspectacular despite good soil, adequate fertilization and water. Apparently, an Ohio summer just wasn't scorching enough for Hamelia's liking. Given another opportunity I'd try again.
An excellent foliage plant that thrives in Gulf Coast conditions but also does nicely in hot summer regions in northern states is Strobilanthes dyerianus, a.k.a. Persian shield. This beauty has purple leaves with green veins, displaying what one source terms an iridescent metallic sheen, a pretty good description. In frost-free areas Persian shield will be a sizable evergreen shrub; in cooler climates a couple of feet in height with greater spread is possible in the course of a growing season. Along the Texas Gulf Coast it prefers afternoon shade but it welcomes full sun in northern gardens. I have about eight plants currently brightening up the border, most of them raised from cuttings.
Erythrina herbacea (coral bean) is a Texas native perennial, said to be hardy to zone 8a but reputedly surviving and returning from the roots as far north as the Red River, matching my 6b hardiness zone. It’s a quick grower that attains shrub or even small tree status in the deep South. I set out three plants grown from seed last spring, which grew moderately before frost. I had pretty much given up on it when spring headed to a close and there was no sign of life. Then in early June, surprise! there were Erythrina sprouts, and eventually all three plants regenerated. As of early July the largest was headed towards 3 feet tall. No sign of flowers yet (in its native environs, E. herbacea may send up flower spikes before foliage appears), but I’m hopeful a full year’s acclimatization and a slightly milder winter will result in bloom.
I greatly miss another Texas native that grew in a hot spot by the south house wall at our place near Houston, Anisacanthus wrightii (flame acanthus) This one’s a shrub or shrublet with vivid tubular red flowers produced over a long season. It’s reportedly hardy as far north as zone 7, so I may give it a try if I can find it an optimal full sun location with very well-drained soil. This is a good one to grow if you have a xeric garden, as it’s drought tolerant once established.
My all-time favorite Texas ornamental grass is Muhlenbergia capillaris, known as Gulf muhly. On my commute south on Hwy 288 in late summer and fall M. capillaris could be counted on to create a spectacle in pasturelands, as the setting sun shone through its abundant, fine pink plumes. As it is rated by some to be hardy as far north as zone 6, I made an attempt to grow a plant in my mid-Ohio garden, but it didn’t make it through its first winter. It’s been a different story here in central Kentucky. Seed-raised plants have survived the winter starting in 2020-21. The first flowers appeared in 2021 and put on a show late last summer.
M. capillaris endured last Xmas’ deep freeze and things look good for a repeat performance in ‘23. This is year #2 for a relative, Muhlenbergia reverchonii, also raised from seed, which initially flowered in 2022 but was less impressive than M. capillaris in bloom. M. reverchonii a.k.a. seep muhly is a bit more hardy than M. capillaris (to zone 5), and depending on which photos you believe, produces a misty cloud of flowers that are either pale pink, mid-pink or reddish pink. It will get another year or two to prove itself here.
A favorite genus of plants dating from my Texas days is Jatropha, an interesting group of succulents mainly growing as shrubs and small trees in sunny locations in subtropical to tropical climates, or as die-back perennials a bit further north. Jatropha integerrima is one I had in my Texas Gulf Coast garden, as a small shrub with bright red flowers. For a long time I’ve had J. podagrica (gout plant) growing in a pot indoors. It gets its name (alternate appellation: Buddha belly plant) from its swollen lower stem. J. podagrica goes mostly dormant during the winter, at which time it may send up a few spikes of red flowers. With the return of warm and moist conditions, it produces large multilobed leaves and more abundant flowers.
Lastly there’s Jatropha multifida, which has finely dissected leaves and pink-red flowers. I have one of these grown from seed, from which I’m hoping for flowers this year.
Duranta erecta a.k.a. Duranta repens is a shrubby perennial (or perennial shrub in zone 9b on south) which gets its genus name from Castore Durante, a 15th century Italian botanist. It is popular in deep South gardens for its sprays of blue to purple flowers, followed by small yellow fruit, from which it gets the popular name golden dewdrop. By all rights it should be a temperennial here, but weirdly enough, earlier this month I spotted a Duranta shoot emerging from last year’s planting spot. It couldn’t have reseeded since there were no flowers last year. With an earlier start in ‘23, there hopefully will be blooms from multiple plants of D. erecta later on. I’ve used Duranta repens “Aurea” as a temperennial foliage accent here in Kentucky, effective with blue-flowered Agapanthus as neighbors. In my garden it reaches about a foot tall with slighter greater spread. “Aurea” uncommonly flowers, but doesn’t need to.
There are quite a few other Texas garden stalwarts I am interested in trying in Kentucky, including Turk’s cap (Malvaviscus arboreus v. drummondii), hardy to zone 7, and Texas star hibiscus, reportedly reliable up through zone 5. Limiting factors for hardy hibiscus in my area includes their attractiveness to Japanese beetles. Texas star hibiscus (H. coccineus) may not be the best ornamental to plant out by your mailbox or in another conspicuous spot, as its foliage closely resembles that of Cannabis sativa, leading to the possibility of mistaken harvesting by miscreants and visits from the local constabulary. I can only dream about growing certain Salvia species that are either too tender for my climate or bloom too late in the season, ensuring that frost will cut them down before flowers can open. Salvia madrensis is one such gorgeous sage. Still, there are other ornamental sages commonly grown in Texas that stand a good chance of perennial survival here, including hybrids of S. greggii such as ‘Furman’s Red’, being trialed here in ‘23.
With enough space (and mulch), maybe I can grow them all.