Articles by Bill Ward

The Recent Discovery May 10, 2004 was a big day for me… or I should say, a big-red day. On that day, Patty Leslie Pasztor and I kayaked through limestone

September is our favorite time to go to Big Bend National Park, because the crowds are gone and the mountain wildflowers are in full bloom. This year was no exception.

The hint of fall in the morning air makes me want to get back outside with the native plants. A few plants that didn’t survive the exceptional drought in our

A recent report from the Office of the State Climatologist states that for our part of Central Texas, “the intensity of the 2009 drought is greater than that of most

Our prolonged drought and brutal heat wave have just about worn down my enthusiasm for writing about native plants in the garden. Even long-established native plants are suffering, while it

It is difficult to find anything to like about this exceptional drought we continue to suffer, but in this part of the Hill Country, at least it seems to have

Effective September 1, 2009, there will be an official Texas Native Plant Week, celebrated annually the third week in October. During the 2009 Texas legislative session, Representative Donna Taylor of

Everyone complained about the poor crop of wildflowers in the Hill Country last spring, but the lack of wildflowers was expected in the midst of our prolonged drought. No rain,

After “Do deer eat it?”, probably the second-most-common question asked by Hill Country gardeners wanting to grow native plants is “What can I plant in the shade under the live

Douglas W. Tallamy wrote a whole book on what this column has mentioned too briefly and too few times; namely, that growing native plants in your garden concerns a lot

Hill Country summers are hard on most flowering plants, even native plants. By July many blooming wildflowers and shrubs, whether in the wild or in the garden, are in a

Steve Lowe, Kendall County Park Naturalist, wrote to say that this spring he has seen more than the usual number of Agave species blooming. He suggests May is a good

Anacacho orchid tree (Bauhinia lunarioides) is the Operation NICE! (Natives Instead of the Common Exotics!) choice for May. This large shrub or small tree is ever-increasingly popular as a hardy

From time to time, the Boerne Chapter of the Native Plant Society presents its SUN Award (Standing Up for Natives Award) to someone who has made special contributions to the

Last week I tagged along with a group who were doing a plant list for one of the new properties acquired by San Antonio’s Proposition 1 in northern Bexar County,

Texas has a large number of Acacia, as many as 17 or 18 species and varieties, according to which taxonomist is making the list. Some members of that genus are

If asked to name prominent native plants of the Texas Hill Country, would your list include a fern? Probably that would be the last plant named by most people. Ferns

Operation NICE! (Natives Instead of the Common Exotics!) starts the new year with yucca, a plant that is very Texan and very NICE!. Yuccas grow in all parts of Texas;

My good buddy J. W. Pieper recently asked me to please write a column on ball moss. J. W. frequently leads nature walks at Honey Creek State Natural Area, and

In the recent newsletter of the Boerne Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas, Jack Morgan wrote a good piece on how lucky we are to live in bigtooth

“Cielo” usually means sky or heaven or paradise, sometimes roof or canopy. Every one of these translations probably could apply to some aspect of El Cielo Biosphere Reserve in the

Probably the earliest harbingers of spring in our yard are the agarita bushes. They are the first shrubs to bloom, with tiny bright-yellow flowers. Soon after that, they are putting

During a Thursday morning hike last week, I saw three plants I never expected to get to see in the wild. I would have felt lucky to see just one

These days a lot of gardeners and landscapers make a point of including plants that attract butterflies. One of the best butterfly magnets is blue mistflower, the Operation NICE! (Natives