Great Native Plants for the Southern Plains

Growing native plants is the gardening equivalent of having your cake and corrode it too . Not only are these plant life beautiful and more likely to thrive in your landscape , they also trifle a essential part in nourish the living landscape for pollinators , birds , and other brute .

For their apparently interminable benefits , it ’s always worth adding another native plant to your garden . Below , find aboriginal plants for the Southern Plains that will please human , animate being , and insect guests in your garden .

1. Blackfoot Daisy

Name:Melampodium leucanthum

Zones:5–10

Size:1 foot marvelous and wide

Conditions : Full sun ; well - drained dirt

This short whitened daisy does wondrously in rock garden and other hot , well - drained areas ( even limestone and hardpan ) . It hates being overwatered , so do n’t even look at it intemperately if you ’re holding a tearing can . The livid blooming release a sweet honey scent when the sun shines on them , which can make them nice to have near pathways . Blackfoot daisy attracts bees and butterflies , requires little sustentation , flowers for much of the year , and can survive extreme heat and extreme low temperature . This is a real winner for our region with its particularly hot , ironical summers .

2. Flame Acanthus

Name:Anisacanthus quadrifidusvar.wrightii

Zones:8–10

Size:3 to 5 feet grandiloquent and 3 to 4 feet across-the-board

Conditions : Full sun to partial shade ; well - drained soil

Flame acanthus is a sturdy , warmth - loving bush that explosion into orange - red tubelike blooms in belated spring and continues blooming through late fall . It never give out to draw in hummingbirds and has a beautiful lifelike var. but can also be coaxed into more schematic form or hedge . It can take a hard pruning ( prune back by one - third in winter ) and looks its good and fullest when fleece regularly during the blossoming time of year . Flame acanthus is inhuman resistant , but , in the northern part of its range ( around Dallas ) , it will die back to the ascendent each winter and reemerge in saltation .

3. White Mistflower

Name:Ageratina havanensis

Size:3 to 4 feet marvelous and 2 to 3 feet wide

This is a go - to plant for difficult shady surface area , and it does equally well in gay location . The fuzzy , cream - colored blooms of white mist-flower stand out against its dark green foliage , and their fragrance attract many butterflies and other pollinator in late summertime and former declination . It can grow fairly magnanimous in sunny locating but will be somewhat small in spook ; it will still brandish and blossom in partial spook , though . It tolerates heat and drouth and blossoms best when cut back hard in winter .

4. Rock Penstemon

Name:Penstemon baccharifolius

Size:1 to 2 feet tall and 1 to 3 feet broad

This gorgeous penstemon post up impressive 18 - in stalks with clusters of reddish , tubular flush that are beloved by hummingbirds and butterflies . It blooms all summer long and has chummy , hazy , drab green leaf . Rock penstemon look outstanding when it can straggle over bumpy ledges , and , not surprisingly , it involve near drainage and little water supply to thrive . It tend to go back in winter , at least partially , but a good , hard pruning will go down it decent again for natural spring and promote slow foliage .

Karen Beaty is a plantsman for the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin , Texas .

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