News and announcements from our committee chairs, board members, and chapter leaders. Subscribe to our mailing list to stay up to date. For chapter news, visit Chapters. If you are looking for a calendar of events, see our Events Calendar.
May is the month for agave
Only 4 or 5 agave species are thought to be native to Texas, but agaves have been valued and transplanted by man prior to historic cultivation.
Anacacho orchid tree, a NICE! landscape plant
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 landscape plant for Hill Country yards. Bauhinia is a large genus with 250 species of shrubs, trees, and vines growing
Steve Lowe suggests May as month of the “maguey lily”
Author: Bill Ward 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 month to reiterate the attributes of this landscape plant that does so well in Hill Country yards.
Rose Pavonia – NICE! Bloomer for Hot, Dry Summer
Author: Bill Ward 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 summer slump. However, one little native shrub that keeps blooming through the heat and on into the
May 2009
NICE! Plant of the Month Bauhinia lunarioides (congesta) Description:The Anacacho Orchid Tree is a small blooming shrub or tree and is a member of the legume or pea family. In Texas, it is found only in the Anacacho Mountains of Kinney County and in a small area along the Devil’s
A remarkable book about Texas plants
**ARCHIVED POST ** Consider chile pequín (Capsicum annuum), also known as chiltepín. There’s no denying that it’s cute — cute enough, in fact, to have long ago become a backdoor herb. Even Thomas Jefferson couldn’t resist this easily grown petite pepper with little red fruits brightening shady niches. He planted
Anacacho orchid tree, a great landscape plant
**ARCHIVED POST ** Anacacho orchid tree (Bauhinia lunarioides) is ever-increasingly popular as a hardy landscape plant for Hill Country yards.
If the deer eat it, plant it!
Probably the most frequently asked question about native plants in Hill Country nurseries is, “Do deer eat it?” If the answer is yes, the usual response is, “Then I can’t buy that plant for my yard.” Jan Wrede, Boerne naturalist and conservationist, agrees that the question is good, but argues that the response is wrong.
New chapters in East Texas
**ARCHIVED POST ** Two new chapters were announced at the quarterly board meeting in Wichita Falls on April 18. Lake Country Chapter will meet in Mt. Pleasant and Four Corners Chapter will meet in Texarkana.
SUN shines on Chuck Janzow
Author: Bill Ward 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 native-plant movement. This recognition is reserved for those whose efforts involving native plants have made a lasting
What’s Blooming during this Brown Spring?
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, and yesterday I was with a couple of friends at Government Canyon State Natural Area scouting out a route for
What does it mean to be native?
The tacit definition many botanists and enthusiasts seem to use is that native plants are those that were growing naturally here when the European settlers came.
