The Nifty Fifty

Fifty posts!  I'm celebrating -- it's a little tiny milestone, to be sure, but I am happy to be here.

Here's a list of fifty plants in my garden -- and these are the true workhorses: the trees, shrubs, vines, ferns and gingers.  I was surprised at how easy it was to come up with 50 of them.  I have a small garden - less than 5,000 square feet, and yes, it does have flowers, grass, vegetables, herbs, bulbs and other plants.  I guess I'm a bit of a collector after all!

Trees

Live Oak (Quercus virginiana)
Drummond Red Maple (Acer rubrum var. drummondii)
Baldcypress (Taxodium distichum)
Crape Myrtle – Basham’s Party Pink, Catawba (Lagerstroemia indica)
Chinese Fringetree (Chionanthus retusus)
Mayhaw (Crataegus aestivalis)
Texas Persimmon (Diospyrus texana)
Savannah Holly (Ilex x. attenuata ‘Savannah’)
Weeping Yaupon (Ilex vomitoria ‘Pendula’)
Orange – Republic of Texas (Citrus sinensis ‘Republic of Texas’)
Lemon – Improved Meyer (Citrus limon ‘Improved Meyer’)
Satsuma – Dwarf Brown Select (Citrus unshui ‘Dwarf Brown Select’)
Holly – Nellie R. Stevens (Ilex x. ‘Nellie R. Stevens’)
Cherry – Hirome Dwarf (Prunus sp. ‘Hirome’)
Apple – Grafted Espalier - Anna, Dorsett Golden, Fuji (Malus domestica)

Shrubs

Tasmanian Tree Fern (Dicksonia antarctica)
Dwarf Yaupon (Ilex vomitoria ‘Nana’)
Pink Indigo (Indigofera kirilowii)
Arrowwood Viburnum (Viburnum dentatum)
Boxwood (Buxus microphylla)
Azalea – Crimson Majesty (Rhododendron indica ‘Crimson Majesty’)
Azalea – Crimson Princess (Rhododendron indica ‘Crimson Princess’)
Azalea – Pink Gumpo (Rhododendron ‘Gumpo’)
Gardenia – Daisy (Gardenia radicans ‘Daisy’)
Spiderlily (Hemerocallis galvestonensis)
Crinum (Crinum x.)
Dwarf Barbados Cherry (Malphigia glabra)
Indian Hawthorn Dwarf Umbellata (Rhaphiolepis umbellata ‘Minor’)
Australian Rosemary (Westringia fruticosa)
Bouganvillea - Juanita Hatten and Barbara Karst (Bouganvillea spp.)
African Iris (Dietes bicolor)
Butterfly Iris (Moraea iridioides)
Roses - Cinco de Mayo, Julia Child, Valentine, Spice (Rosa floribunda, mostly)
Lantana (Lantana camara)

Gingers

Shell Ginger (Alpinia zerumbet)
Butterfly Ginger (Hedychium coronarium)
Cardamom Ginger (Alpinia nutans)
Peacock Ginger (Kaempferia laotica)
Mauve Dancing Ladies Ginger (Globba winitii)

Vines

Passionflower (Passiflora spp.)
Fig Ivy (Ficus pumila)
Bengal Clock Vine (Thunbergia battiscombei)
Variegated Vinca (Vinca major)
Pitcher Clematis (Clematis pitcheri)
Sweet Autumn Clematis (Clematis ternifolia)
Coral Vine (Antigonon leptopus)
Pink Jasmine (Jasminum polyanthum)

Ferns

Australian Sword Fern (Nephrolepis obliterata)
Holly Fern (Cyrtomium falcatum)
Southern Wood Fern (Dryopteris normalis)

Also celebrating: fathers everywhere.  Happy Father's Day to my dad, Mike Blocher and my husband, Tom Barrow.  You two are my heroes.

Telfair

I like to watch what goes on with big, commercial landscape projects.  It affects, at least subliminally, what homeowners look for in the garden center.  And it's fun to see what can be accomplished when you really throw money at a project.

For the past several years, I've been observing the landscaping at Telfair, a master-planned community near Sugar Land.  Overall, I really like how they've combined the planting style of the Old South with plants that are more suitable for the coastal plains.  Most of the plants they've used are common enough:  I'm sure you've seen plenty of Knockout roses lately.  Here they are combined with bulbine, planted along the west side of a brick wall.  Both these plants are well-suited for such a hot location.

Knockout roses are repeated in various hedge formations throughout the development.  Here at the corner of University and New Territory, they've allowed the roses to get up closer to their natural height -- and it's a pretty impressive sight.  Most people don't seem to realize that these roses, if left to their own devices, will easily exceed 6 feet in height. Here, they're planted with magnolias -- more about them later.

Here and there you'll find plots of native and "sort of" native grasses, like Gulf Coast Muhly and Mexican Feather Grass.  I like these grasses massed together like this.  It has more impact, I think, than dotting them here and there in the home landscape.  There are also large plantings of giant liriope and Aztec grass.  The Aztec grass would probably be a bit happier if it were getting some afternoon shade.  I think it struggles here in the full sun.  Maybe when the trees are a little bigger, they'll perk up.

Speaking of trees, I was very worried when Telfair moved in a number of very large sycamore trees.  It always amazes me when landscape architects attempt this.  And frankly, it amazes me that they are so successful when they do it -- a tribute not only to the tree movers, but to someone who's planning the watering.  These sycamores put up with quite a severe drought last summer and then an unusually harsh winter, but only one looks thin and peaked.  Perhaps they'll all survive if we don't have another drought.

I like the red and yellow color scheme too.  They've been able to combine perennials like roses, daylilies, pentas, lantana, and bulbine with the vivid red annual coleus.  Here and there, the red and yellow color scheme is punctuated with a very dark blue agapanathus.  There are also pentas, which may or may not be perennial in our climate.  I imagine they are treating them as annuals.

In keeping with the Old South tradition, there are many different colors of crape myrtles planted at Telfair.  The white ones are possibly Natchez, notable for the beautiful exfoliating bark.  The watermelon-colored ones may be Tuscarora and there are some pretty little pink ones too.  I like this area -- planted more closely than usual, and underplanted with giant liriope.

My favorite thing about the Telfair landscape are these beautiful stands of magnolia trees.  I hear from people who should know that they are a new cultivar called "Miss Chloe."  They've been rapid growers at Telfair and are just lovely.  I'm so glad they are leaving them full to the ground, instead of limbing them up like "normal" trees.  It adds a very stately touch to the overall site plan.

In fact, the trees overall are outstanding.  Baldcypresses are planted near the lakes.  Several different varieties of oaks are planted throughout the development.  Even though the landscape is very young, it already has a lush, mature look.  That's what lots of money for big trees will get you!

Ligustrum japonicum

Ligustrums are blooming right now.  The aroma brings to mind all the difficult questions associated with this notoriously well-adapted plant.  Evergreen ligustrum is hardy, easy to grow, and tolerates a wide range of soil and light conditions.  It is easy to root from cuttings and easy to graft; consequently, it's inexpensive to produce, making ligustrums a good bargain at the garden center.  Ligustrum hedges make a good screen and if planted in the right location, rarely need pruning.  They flower in spring, covering themselves with fragrant white flowers.  The blue-black berries form in late summer and persist through the winter, providing an abundant source of food for birds.

On the other hand, it is so well-adapted as to be considered invasive.  It quickly escapes cultivation, sprouting from seeds carried into wild areas by birds.  Because it grows so rapidly, it shades and out-competes native shrubs.  Most Southern lists of invasive plants include Ligustrum japonicum.  Moreover, some people find the fragrance offensive and some are allergic to its pollen.

What bothers me the most about ligustrum, though, is how people use it.  I hate to see ligustrum planted as if it will only be 4 feet tall and 2 feet wide.  Ligustrum can grow to 20 feet tall and 20 feet wide!  Planting them 18" apart in little tiny hedgerows is a recipe for disaster.  Someone (you?) will have to prune them regularly to maintain that unnatural size.  Even worse:  people who should know better include ligustrum in landscape designs, standards and guidelines.  Fort Bend County's West Fort Bend Management District specifically requires long, low hedges of them to be planted in every commercial development along our major corridors.  How low?  Four feet.  How close together?  Eighteen inches. 

I love plants too much to eliminate everything that isn't "native."  I wouldn't recommend ligustrums but I wouldn't ban them either.  Unless they were planted in little hedgerows!