NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY OF TEXAS
Kerrville Chapter

APRIL  NEWSLETTER - 2004

NATIVES ON THE GROW

Dedicated to the understanding, preservation and enjoyment of the native flora of the Hill Country

April Program: 

Seeds:  The Fruit of the Matter

Seeds: the Fruit of the Matter will be presented by Barbara Lowenthal and Linda Riner at our meeting on Tuesday, April 6th beginning at 2 p.m..  Both ladies are members of the Gleaners, who collect native plant seeds for Riverside Nature Center.  The program shows the beauty and diversity of a plant's seed life, with examples of seed cases and seeds from a variety of native plants.  Surprisingly, it is not always easy to identify which part of a plant is the actual viable seed.  There will be a demonstration on the methods and techniques of collecting, cleaning and storing seeds.

Barbara Lowenthal, a member of our Chapter, is a retired teacher who moved to Kerrville in 1982.  Later, she became active in the education programs at Riverside Nature Center.  Barbara developed her interest in native plants through her work with two local experts, Susan Sander and Edith Bettinger.  Last year, Barbara became a certified Master Naturalist. Her hobbies are birding, reading and plant studies.

A native Texan, Linda Riner was born and raised on a farm in Wichita Falls.  Linda married and left the state when she was nineteen.  Like many local residents, Linda and her husband returned to Texas and settled in Kerrville after they retired.  Linda has been a bird watcher since childhood and has always enjoyed the outdoors.   She only realized the uniqueness of native plants since she returned to Texas.

The Kerrville Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas holds monthly meetings on the first Tuesday of the month (September through June) at Riverside Nature Center, 150 Francisco Lemos St. in Kerrville.  These meetings are free and open to the public.  If you have any questions about the Native Plant Society of Texas, or this program, please call June Hartley at 896-5191.  

WELCOME TO OUR NEW MEMBERS! 

Pam Bresler             Adele Junkin           John Vece                Diane Williams

Calendar

April 6 at 2 PM:  “Seeds:  The Fruit of the Matter” by Chapter member Barbara Lowenthal and Linda Riner at NPSOT – Kerrville Chapter meeting at Riverside Nature Center, 150 Francisco Lemos St., Kerrville.

April 6 at 6:30 PM:  “Identifying Texas Wildflowers“ by Lottie Millsaps at NPSOT – Boerne Chapter at the Cibolo Nature Center in Boerne.  See their website for driving directions at www.npsot.org/boerne 

Lottie Millsaps is a certified Texas Master Naturalist, and a long-time Native Plant Society member.  Her lifelong fascination with native plants has led her to spend many years studying the local vegetation. Much of her education on native vegetation was gained while collecting for the Bexar Regional Herbarium.  Besides knowing how to identify most of the native plants in this area, she also has interesting and amusing facts to tell about nearly every plant.

April 13 – 18:  Nature Quest  in Uvalde County, TX see www.thcrr.com/quest or call 800-210-0380 for more information.  

April 14 – May 19 -  9 AM – Noon:  “Botanical Drawing of Native Plants” by Chapter member Joy Poe M.F.A. at Riverside  Nature Center for six Wednesday mornings, registration =$15.  

May 1 – NPSOT – Kerrville Chapter Field Trip:  Native Trees of the Hill Country  Patty Leslie Pasztor, an ethnobotanist and co-author of Texas Trees, A Friendly Guide will lead a tour of the native trees on a Hill Country ranch.  Save this date and see next month’s newsletter for more details.

May 1 - 10 AM - 5 PM  - Fredericksburg Nativescapes Garden Tour – by NPSOT – Fredericksburg 

Six private gardens will be featured - two in Fredericksburg and four in the countryside surrounding it.  Tickets are $7 for adults, Children 17 & under are free.  For more information, visit www.npsot.org/fredericksburg or contact Lonnie Childs at hollowcreek@starband.net or 830-685-381.

May 1:  Nature Fair in the Kerrville-Schreiner Park co-sponsored by the City of Kerrville Parks & Recreation Department and the Master Naturalists – Hill Country Chapter.  

May 22:  Tree and Shrub Identification by Susan Sander sponsored by Club Ed (Kerrville Adult Education) and Riverside Nature Center.  Workshop fee is $45, and part of fee goes to Riverside Nature Center.  You must pre-register at 830-895-4386. This workshop will teach the use of the Tree Identification Key, a botanical decision-tree system that will allow you to correctly identify most Hill Country trees and shrubs by observing their leaf structure and characteristics.  You will have practical hands-on practice identifying trees at Riverside.  

Nominating Committee Report

Our Chapter Nominating Committee, composed of Tommie Airhart, Barbara Quinby and Ernest Tremayne, has submitted the following slate of recommendations for consideration by the general membership.  Voting occurs at the general meeting in May, with officers installed in June.  The first meeting under the new Board occurs in September after our summer break.
                                                President:                                 John Quinby
                                                1st VP, Programs:                     Julia Campbell
                                                2nd VP, Outreach:                     Melinda Wasson
                                                Secretary:                                 Edna Platte
                                                Treasurer                                   Otis Fox
                                                Director of Communications:       (open)
                                                Director at Large:                       Selma Gibson
                                                Director of Membership:              Janey Crum
There is currently no nominee for the position of Director of Communications.  This officer edits and publishes the monthly newsletter, and handles press releases to the local papers.  The candidate needs to be able to publish the newsletter using Microsoft Word.  If you are interested, or know of a candidate with these qualifications who would like to assist, please notify one of the members of the Nominating Committee.

Earth Day Celebration and Mostly Native Plant Sale

***April 23   5:00 - 6:30 PM: “Members-Only” Plant Sale:  

NPSOT and Riverside Nature Center members get first choice of plants to buy!  

Non-members can join on the spot to shop early!

April 24  8 AM – 3 PM:  This annual Earth Day Celebration and Plant Sale is co-sponsored by Riverside Nature Center and the Native Plant Society of Texas - Kerrville Chapter.  It is held at Riverside Nature Center.  Admission and the seminars are free.  There will be live music, food, and events for children and for adults throughout the day.

Highlights:

Mostly Native Plant Sale will include well-known native plants as well as some more unusual, hard-to-find native plants grown especially for this sale.  Herbs and some near-native plants will also be sold.  Plants will be available in 4 inch, one gallon and two gallon-size pots.

9:00 AM  “Wildfire Preparedness” by Jan Fulkerson of the Texas Forest Service - Urban Wildland Interface will discuss “defensible space” around your home as well as plants, landscaping choices, and landscaping materials that can make your rural home better able to withstand a wildland fire.  She will show examples of how a "firewise" landscape can also be aesthetically pleasing to people and attractive to wildlife as well.

9:00 AM  “Lasagna Gardening” by  Marilyn Butcher of the Hunt Garden Club will speak about this successful gardening project at the Hunt School.  A method for making the soil in which to garden is always popular in the rocky Hill Country.

10:30 AM  “A Passion for Trees” by David Bamberger of the Selah Bamberger Ranch Preserve, discussing how he has planted thousands of trees on his ranch to mitigate the ravages of oak wilt.

1:00 PM  “Lawn Watering in Kerrville – An Explanation of the Watering Schedules” recently enacted by the City Council for City residents by Paul Knippel, Director of Development and Infrastructure for Kerrville.

1:00 PM  “Water Issues in Rural Kerr County” for residents outside the City by Lon Langley, General Manager of the Headwaters Underground Water Conservation District

2:00 PM  “Juniper Interception of Rainwater” by Dr. Keith Owens of Texas A&M University on his ongoing study quantifying the impact of “cedar” trees on the fate of rain falling on the cedar canopy.

Our Native Plants Know It’s Spring!

Spring is an exciting time where significant changes can be observed in the landscape each day.  Since we are fortunate to have quite a few new members, we offer the table below listing the Hill Country wildflowers in the approximate order they will bloom.  This knowledge helps to identify the flowers that you see by letting you potentially eliminate the candidate flowers that bloom at other times of the year.  This is only a rough guide for bloom period since our wildflowers are affected by weather, and the bloom period can be prolonged by weeks to even months with some rain, or a periodic light hand sprinkling.  Planting wildflowers from this list also helps you have a succession of bloom from early Spring through frost (see next month’s table for later blooming flowers).  The table indicates whether the plant is an Annual or Perennial, and the bloom period.  The Deer-resistant column lists very deer-resistant plants with a bold “Y”.  The less emphatic “Y” indicates some doubt if you have high populations of very hungry deer.

THE SEASONAL SUCCESSION OF HILL COUNTRY WILDFLOWERS

Common Name

Scientific Name

A/P

Bloom Period

Bloom Color

Deer-resistant

Windflower

Anemone heterophylla

P

Feb - April

White, pink, blue, or lavender

 

Winecup

Callirhoe involucrata

P

Feb - July

Magenta

 

Slender-stem Bitterweed

Tetraneursis scaposa

P

March - October

 

 

Texas Bluebonnet

Lupinus texensis

A

March - April

Blue

 

Pink Evening Primrose

Oenothera speciosa

P

March - July

Pink

 

Prairie Verbena

Verbena bipinnatafida

P

Spring - Fall

Purple

Y

Engelmann Daisy

Engelmannia pinnatifida

P

March - Oct

Yellow

 

Texas Star

Lindheimera texana

A

March - Sept

Yellow

 

Huisache Daisy

Amblyolepis setigera

A

April - June

Yellow

 

Greenthread

Thelesperma filifolium

A

Spring  - Fall

Yellow 

 

Standing Winecup

Callirhoe digitata

P

March - May

Magenta

 

Prairie Larkspur

Delphinium carolinianum

P

April - June

Pale blue

Y

Mexican Hat

Ratibida columnaris

P

April  - August

Maroon/yellow

Y

Mealy Blue Sage

Salvia farinacea

P

April  - Sept

Blue

Y

Two-leaved Senna

Senna roemeriana 

P

April - October

Yellow

Y

Cowpen Daisy

Verbesina encelioides

A

April - October

Yellow

Y

Tropical Sage

Salvia Coccinea

P

April - November

Red

Y

TEXAS WILDFLOWER BOOKS

There are many excellent books on Texas wildflowers.  If you are new to Texas wildflowers, you may prefer Wildflowers of Texas by Geyata Ajilvsgi, since it is arranged by the color of the bloom.  Folks also like Wildflowers of the Texas Hill Country by Marshall Enquist, which contains only the wildflowers that grow here, and excludes those from the many other ecoregions of Texas.  This book is arranged by plant family, which can seem a bit difficult at first.  This arrangement does teach you the characteristics of plant families, which helps you recognize related plants, and be more observant about the blooms, leaf characteristics etc.  

TEXAS WILDFLOWER WEBSITES

There are many good websites for identifying our wildflowers, starting with our NPSOT  - Kerrville Chapter website at http://www.npsot.org/Kerrville/hill_country_flora.htm , and then on “Wildflower Checklist” to see photos and descriptions of native plants found on our members Raul and Sandy Pena’s land.  We are fortunate to have Raul serving as our Chapter Webmaster.  

Our sponsor, Natives of Texas nursery also has a very useful website at www.nativesoftexas.com , where you can search for plants in their catalog by category (flowers, vines, shrubs, grasses) or by where you want to plant them (shade, sun or understory (small) trees).  Horticultural information is also provided.  

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center has a comprehensive website at www.wildflower.org .  Click on “Explore plants” for a wonderful overview of Texas native plants.  The LBJ Wildflower Center in Austin is a great place to visit in any season, but especially in Spring.  You can learn a great deal by strolling through the gardens, the native meadows and the land restoration research areas.

If you prefer a shorter trip, you can see many Hill Country native plants at Riverside Nature Center in Kerrville.  Stop by often to enjoy the succession of bloom, and other interesting things that the plants do (seedpods, etc.).

Most of all, try to take time from your busy schedule to appreciate the remarkable beauty of our native plants as they begin their long season of continually changing displays.

THE BUTTERFLY GARDEN AT KERRVILLE SCHREINER PARK

The Kerrville–Schreiner Park contains a large amphitheater with concentric rows of benches surrounding a presentation pavilion and fire ring in the center.  This amphitheater contains a butterfly garden that is protected from hungry deer by high fencing that is attractively disguised with vines and plantings.  Several of our Chapter members have been instrumental in funding, building, planting and maintaining this butterfly garden for the enjoyment of Park visitors. 

Spring is a busy time in all gardens, and this project is appealing for additional volunteers.  Workdays are each Monday and Wednesday at 9:00 AM.  In the summer, work begins at 8:00 AM.  Folks usually work about one hour.  You are welcome to take seeds or any plants that need to be removed.  Thus, this volunteer project is a good way to increase your knowledge of native plants and enhance your home garden as well.  There is a wide variety of native and adaptive plants in the garden that attract a remarkable number and variety of butterflies.

The Park entrance fee is waived for volunteers on Butterfly Garden workdays.  You can work as much or as little as you choose.  Please contact Chapter members Barbara Lowenthal, Ernest Tremayne or Kay White for more information.

DOOR PRIZES

Our March door prizes, donated by Tanneberger Nursery of Kerrville, included 2 Big Red Sage (a native plant endangered in the wild), 1 Red Buckeye tree,  1 Rose Pavonia (the Rock Rose), 2 Red Yuccas, 2 Coral Honeysuckle and 3 Cherry Sage.  Tanneberger Nursery is having a big native plant sale.  Stop by for a look!

Every