I hope everyone read the recent Houston Chronicle article "Using Plants to Fight Flooding in Houston". While dissensus might be the key word when it comes to fixing this crises, I for one totally agree with this approach. If you missed it, please click on the link and read it! 

 

One thing on which gardeners should be in total agreement is that we're FINALLY -- albeit slowly -- moving into our best gardening period of all. Days become cooler, insects fewer, blooms more prolific, rainfall . . . well . . . most years we can say more prevalent, but okay maybe that's not so much a plus this year. Now is the best time of the year to plant bulbs, shrubs and, most important, flowers to attract butterflies, hummers and other beneficial wildlife.

The only thing predictable about our weather is its total unpredictability! For garden writers, this season is manna from heaven. This area's so active with gardening activities, the hardest part is getting everything in! So, wasting no more time, think of this as a fabulous potpourri of gardening delights. 

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KNOW YOUR SALVIAS!  It's generally agreed hardy salvias, as a group, are among our most essential attractors of butterflies, hummers and other beneficial wildlife. 

 

We're not talking about those little red salvias (Salvia splendens) so popular as bedding plants in spring. These are good plants - but they're not considered "hardy." They're Brazilian natives generally treated as annuals (one year bloomers), even tho they might prove perennial during our milder winters.

 

Hardy salvias are true perennials, more shrubby plants native to Texas and Mexico. They're members of the mint family. When we visited the Monarch wintering forests in Mexico, the horseback ride up the mountain took us past so many salivas blooming in the woods.

Unfortunately, our best hardy salvias sometimes look so much alike, it sometimes takes an expert to identify them on site. Newer hybrids do make compact lower growing bushes. Others get VERY tall, so it pays to watch what you're buying!

The good news is that most, if not all, the great upcoming plant sales listed in our newsletter calendar, below, will carry hardy salvias for sure. For example, Mercer Botanic Garden's Saturday, Sept. 24, Autumn Plant Sale and Market, you can find:

 

As of this writing, Mercer's hardy salvia inventory will include (among others):  

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CACTUS TO DRAW THE EYE UPWARD!  Not the way we usually think of viewing cacti, eh?

Eye-catching choices for hanging baskets will be among the very special, rare and perfect-for-the-Gulf Coast choices at the Houston Cactus & Succulent Society's big annual Sat.-Sun, Sept. 10-11, Show & Sale. 

 

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• WaterSmart Newsletter, which focus a great deal on native plants well suited to our landscapes. (Details) This one is produced by Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, WaterSmart, Texas Coastal Watershed Program and Texas A&M's SeaGrant Texas. Note the water-related groups? That's because we homeowners are doing major damage to our natural waterways through our massive landscape chemical run-offs.

FOREVER GRATEFUL CARMINE STAHL (1927-2016) CAME INTO MY LIFE   To close, not on a sad, but on a grateful, note. I will always give thanks that Carmine Stahl came into my life. Pictured above center with his wife Mary Lou, Carmine passed away recently, leaving behind an everlasting spotlight on native plants we should see as treasures. Unfortunately, most of us only see them as weeds.

 

Carmine was internationally recognized as an edible native plants expert (who also, I learned in his obituary, was once a circuit rider preacher!). But, most important for us, Carmine was a delightful bridge between us today and our ancestors who recognized, and were grateful for, all the native plants that helped them survive. Somewhere along the line, we lost faith in (or knowledge of) these natural gifts.  

 

 

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