Let's Think About It For A Minute

Let's just put aside my general frustration with gardeners who want "all color, all the time."  What is really getting under my skin are gardeners who want lots of bright color all year long, in the shade.  Using only native Texas plants. 

Somehow, "native" has come to be synonymous with "carefree."  Of course, this is not true.  Dogwoods are native to Texas and do poorly in our zone 9 humid, hot climate.  They are much better adapted to the forests of East Texas.  Just because something is native to Texas doesn't mean it thrives in the urban/suburban environment here.  After all, plants aren't native to cities at all. 

And somehow, I think the whole concept of shade has escaped people.  Imagine a peaceful walk in the shade of a native forest.  There is very little color there, aside from green and brown. Of course, you'll see the occasional flash of red, purple, pink or white.  Maybe even, if you're lucky, yellow.  But the temperate forest isn't a riot of color naturally.  Even the tropical rainforest is a mostly green affair.

Which is why we import plants from foreign lands.  Why we hybridize plants in pursuit of outlandish color.  Even in the shade. So pick any two:  native, shade-loving, colorful, frost tolerant, drought tolerant, heat tolerant, flowering, dwarf, evergreen.  Pick more than two and your search query may return no results.

Photo courtesy Kurt Stueber via Wikimedia Commons.

This is Turk's Cap, or Malvaviscus arboreus.  It is native to Texas (1), tolerates shade (2), displays occasional color (3), is cold tolerant (4), heat tolerant (5), and moderately drought tolerant (6).  Unfortunately, it is not a dwarf and it is not evergreen. Oh well!