Know your soil before you choose a tree for your landscape. Always perform a drainage test if drainage is questionable. Clay Soil Cedar Elm Lacebark Elm Canby Oak Live Oak Texas Red Oak Bur Oak Chinese Pistache Magnolia Bald Cypress Mex. Sycamore Caliche Soil Cedar Elm Lacey Oak [...]
When you arrive... When you arrive, please check in at the welcome booth. If you are planning on purchasing a tree that is 15 gallon size or larger you MUST sign in with your name and phone number. You will be helped in the order that you signed in. If there are people ahead of you, we will call your phone number when it is your turn to be helped. If necessary, you may request a salesperson with a golf cart to assist you. You will be asked if you [...]
Grow Cilantro from Seed Cilantro is a cool-season crop that grows best when the temperatures are between 50° and 85°F. In Central Texas we can begin seeding Cilantro into our gardens in September/October for a November/December harvest and again in February for an April harvest. Cilantro tends to “bolt”, or flower, in hot temperatures, after which it becomes bitter. Try to plant early enough in the spring to get a harvest before the real heat arrives. Cilantro may be grown in beds in the ground in a well-drained, somewhat fertile [...]
Why is it hard to find information on gardening in clay soils? If you have been gardening in clay soil for very long you have probably had your fair share of failures. It is hard to find lists of plants that will thrive in heavy soil, as no one really wants to stick their neck out with recommendations in case it doesn’t work. Of course, there are many variables that need to be considered, and growing conditions are never identical, so please consider this a list of “plants to try” [...]
Why Aren’t My Tomatoes Ripening? It’s June, and some of you have been wondering why your tomatoes have continued to remain green and are failing to ripen. The short answer is TEMPERATURE. The optimum temperature for tomatoes to ripen is 70° to 75°F. If you were a bit late getting your tomatoes planted and/or the temperature got above 85°-90°F early this year, the ripening process slows or even stops. At these high temperatures the pigments lycopene and carotene, which are responsible for giving the fruit the red or [...]
Let's face it, Central Texas has unpredictable winters. It seems that every 10 years or so we will get a killing freeze that separates the hardy palms from the non-hardy palms. Some non-hardy palms such as the Mexican Fan Palm will be damaged more often than that, and may or may not survive even a "normal" winter. There are palms that will survive all but the most brutal Central Texas winters, and I'd like to introduce you to them here. What is our Hardiness Zone? According to the USDA 2023 [...]
Planting a Grow Bag Texas Mountain Laurel MEASURE from the bottom of the bag to the top of the soil. (NOT to the top of the bag) DIG a hole that is about two inches shallower than the measurement of the soil depth. TURN the bag on its side and cut the bottom off the bag with a sharp knife. PLACE the grow bag in [...]
Red Yucca Varieties Red Yucca Hesperaloe parviflora is a versatile, evergreen shrubby perennial that is adapted to most areas in Texas. It is tolerant of alkaline to acid soils, sun, part sun or shade and while very drought tolerant it will also tolerate seasonally wet soils as long as the soil is well drained. They are winter hardy to -20°F which makes them especially suitable for planting in pots in Central Texas. Coral to salmon-pink flowers appear on 6’ tall bloom stalks several times throughout the summer and are hummingbird [...]
If you are reading this now, it is likely that a "freak" winter event is on its way. Central Texas is known for its variable weather patterns and wide swings in temperature are not unheard of. Weather prediction in Central Texas is difficult, so I would suggest that we prepare for the worst and hope for the best in any predicted extreme event. We are seeing forecast lows of anywhere from 10°F to 15°F for much of our area, with below freezing temperatures lasting up to 60 hours or more [...]
Aphids can be difficult insects to control. But how much do we really need to control them? This article explores the aphid life cycle and some different ways to reduce their population without using toxic chemicals. Where do we see aphids? Aphids are sucking insects which feed on fleshy new growth and the undersides of leaves. We look for them at the top of Crape Myrtles where new growth is abundant. We might find them on the flower buds of Tropical Hibiscus, new growth on any species of [...]
Mealy bugs are one nasty insect. You should really familiarize yourself with these destructive, hard to control insects. Catching them early may be your only chance at control. Finding Mealy bugs any time of the year is unwelcome. If you have a greenhouse, you can depend on them showing up when the plastic goes on and the plants go in. If you find mealy bugs on your plants in late summer/early fall, get to work-you MUST control them before bringing them inside or putting them in a greenhouse for the [...]
Have you seen deformed growth at the tips of your Lantana branches this summer? If so, your plant may be infested with a mite called the Lantana Flower Gall Mite. This microscopic mite breeds inside the developing flower buds, stunting vegetative growth and preventing flowering and seed production. The distorted growth appears as a "witches broom" at the location of the tips of the branches where the flowers usually appear. This mite is destructive to ornamental plantings of Lantana in the landscape and affects the seed availability for birds. [...]
