Native Grown Articles

By Bill Ward Published in The Boerne Star in April 2005 Operation NICE! plant for May is Texas betony, which also might be called Texas tough.

By Bill Ward Published in The Boerne Star on April 8, 2005 A lot of people enjoy up-close encounters with butterflies and birds, and many have learned that landscaping with

By Bill Ward Published in The Boerne Star in April 2005 A lot of people enjoy up-close encounters with butterflies and birds, and many have learned that landscaping with certain native plants can help attract these creatures.

By Bill Ward Published in The Boerne Star in March 2005 Operation NICE! plant for April is yellow jasmine, also known as Carolina jessamine. It is evergreen, deer-resistant, and a faithful spring bloomer.

By Bill Ward Published in The Boerne Star in February 2005 The March choice for Operation NICE! (Natives Instead of the Common Exotics!) is an easy sell. Everyone seems to appreciate the big-tooth maple, the close relative of the sugar maple.

By Bill Ward Published in The Boerne Star in February 2005 A good friend recently gave me a copy of Roy Bedichek’s Adventures with a Texas Naturalist. As a Texan who always has enjoyed Nature, I like Bedichek’s astute view of man’s relationship to Nature.

By Bill Ward and Ann Black Published in The Boerne Star on January 28, 2005 If John Nance Garner had his way during the 1901 session of the Texas Legislature, the prickly pear cactus flower would be our state wildflower.

By Bill Ward Published in The Boerne Star on January 14, 2005 There is no native-plant equivalent of the black-capped vireo, Comal blind salamander, nor gray wolf. Any one of these endangered animal species might halt development of an area in which it lives.

By Bill Ward Published in The Boerne Star on December 31, 2004 Project NICE! (Natives Instead of the Common Exotics!) will not choose a specific Plant of the Month for

By Bill Ward Published in The Boerne Star on December 17, 2004 The rufous hummingbird that lives in our backyard from late August until mid-March seemed grateful for the cultivated

By Bill Ward Published in The Boerne Star on December 3, 2004 Boerne chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas will present the SUN Award (Standing Up for Natives

By Bill WardPublished in The Boerne Star on November 12, 2004 The recently discovered 150 to 200 big red sages (Salvia penstemonoides) growing along Cibolo Creek in southern Kendall County are by far the largest known natural population of this rare endemic plant.The once-large patch of big red sage on Frederick Creek near Boerne has dwindled…

By Bill Ward Published in The Boerne Star on October 29, 2004 Operation NICE! (Natives Instead of the Common Exotics!) The plant of the month for November is cedar elm

By Bill Ward Published in The Boerne Star on October 15, 2004 Big red sage (Salvia penstemonoides) is now a fairly common garden plant, but it is scarce in the wild. Presently it is known from only three Texas counties and nowhere else in the world. There are a few small populations of big red…

By Bill Ward Published in The Boerne Star on October 1, 2004 If you drove westward toward the Trans-Pecos earlier this summer, you know that 2004 is the Year of

By Bill WardPublished in The Boerne Star on September 17, 2004Big red sage (Salvia penstemonoides) is a tall perennial favored for its burgundy-red flowers, long bloom period, appeal to hummingbirds, and adaptability to a variety of garden conditions. Nowadays it is common to see this Central Texas endemic plant in flower gardens all over Texas,…

By Bill Ward Published in The Boerne Star on September 3, 2004 Zexmenia daisy is the Operation NICE! plant for September, and to paraphrase Jackie Gleason, “How NICE! it is!”

By Bill Ward Published in The Boerne Star on August 27, 2004 “Native Plants”, the quarterly publication of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, recently had an article by Katherine

By Bill Ward Published in The Boerne Star on August 10, 2004 Operation NICE! (Natives Instead of the Common Exotics!) takes a break during August, because few people are interested

By Bill Ward Published in The Boerne Star on July 23, 2004 Everyone knows the official State Flower of Texas. The bluebonnet, of course. It’s almost as much a symbol

By Bill Ward Published in The Boerne Star on July 9, 2004 It is well publicized these days that several places in the Texas Hill Country are having problems with

By Bill Ward Published in The Boerne Star on July 2, 2004 Some horticulturists, such as Pat McNeal, are questioning whether there should be much soil preparation when planting natives.

By Bill Ward Published in The Boerne Star on June 25, 2004 Just after we crossed the Pecos River on a recent drive to Big Bend National Park, we started

By Bill Ward Published in The Boerne Star on May 25, 2004 The Operation NICE! (Natives Instead of the Common Exotics!) plant for June is a hot item to start

By Bill Ward Published in The Boerne Star on May 7, 2004 It used to be that when I heard, “Dogwood is blooming in Texas,” I thought it must be

By Bill Ward Published in The Boerne Star on April 30, 2004 Operation NICE! (Natives Instead of the Common Exotics!) recommendation for May is the long-blooming yellow bells or esperanza

By Bill Ward Published in The Boerne Star on April 16, 2004 Admittedly, some of the native plants lauded in this column over the past two years are not readily

By Bill Ward Published in The Boerne Star on March 19, 2004 The Boerne Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas recently initiated the SUN Award (Standing Up for