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.
Coral honeysuckle, a NICE! vine for landscaping
Author: Bill Ward Guess what was the first plant to bloom in our yard in 2010? No, it wasn’t anemone nor agarita, usually the first two natives to flower when winter starts to give way to spring. It was coral honeysuckle! That vine began to put out a few red
The Native-Plant Guru of the Trans-Pecos Collected in Kendall County
Author: Bill Ward Two or three weeks ago my wife Kathy brought home a collection of pressed native plants for me to see. She suspected I’d be interested in these herbarium specimens because of their high quality, and she was right! This turns out to be a historic collection! Kathy
Redbuds show that spring is here
If the redbuds are blooming, can the bluebonnets be far behind?
Still green after being in the freezer
**ARCHIVED POST ** Last weekend after the temperature in our yard dropped to 12 degrees one night and 16 the next night, I was lamenting about having to look out on a desolate brown yard for several weeks until spring arrives.
Benny Simpson gets a makeover
**ARCHIVED POST ** It was a sad sight indeed! Benny Simpson’s trial plots at Texas AgriLIFE Urban Solutions site in Dallas were overgrown, weedy, and littered with piles of unremoved limbs from past prunings. Grapevine, some as thick as a wrist, scampered up through the limbs of trees. Goldenrod, gone
January 2010
NICE! Plant of the Month (Sophora secundiflora) Description:Slow growing, evergreeen, multi-trunked shrub or small tree. Usual height is 6-12 feet, up to 30 feet, with a width of 10 feet. Foliage is dense, with dark glossy green leaves having 7-15 leaflets. Flowers, appearing in early spring, are clusters of fragrant
Still green after being in the freezer
Author: Bill Ward Last weekend after the temperature in our yard dropped to 12 degrees one night and 16 the next night, I was lamenting about having to look out on a desolate brown yard for several weeks until spring arrives. It was a nice surprise, however, to see that
NICE! 10 for ’10 — starting with an old favorite
Author: Bill Ward During 2010, Operation NICE! (Natives Instead of the Common Exotics!) will feature 10 of the most popular and successful of past NICE! Plants of the Month. The NICE! Committee members voted for their favorites among the nominees in several categories: trees, shrubs, flowers, vines, and grasses. The
Mountain laurel is a Central Texas favorite
Texas mountain laurel (Sophora secundiflora)is a flowering evergreen shrub or small tree that has been a favorite plant for home and commercial landscaping in Central Texas for a long time.
100 more bigtooth maples line streets of Boerne
Maple-lined streets still would be just a dream if the Lende Foundation had not committed to finance a maple-planting program for ten consecutive years.
100 More Bigtooth Maples Line the Streets of Boerne
Author: Bill Ward We did it again! For the fourth year, the Boerne Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas successfully gave away about 100 bigtooth maples to homeowners, businesses, schools, and churches. Some day, all those maples will make Boerne the Bigtooth Maple Town, where residents and visitors
The native-plant garden and nursery in Medina, Texas
The newest participant in the Boerne Chapter’s Operation NICE! (Natives Instead of Common Exotics!) is Medina Garden Nursery. It’s on Highway 16, just at the southeastern entrance to the little town of Medina and right across the road from Baxter Adams’ tree nursery, the supplier for of our annual Bigtooth
