High Plains Gardening
The gardening website of the Texas High Plains Region
Leaf color is one of the hues of green, other the gray-green or blue-green.
Although usually sold as Clemantis paniculata, it could be C. terniflora. Sweetly fragrant, low water-use vigorous growing vine for great late summer display. Creamy white flowers form silvery seed heads. Cut back in spring as it blooms on new growth.
Typically a Zone 8 plant, the Christmas holiday bulb, Amaryllis, has been successfully wintered over in Amarillo, specifically, the Wolflin area in this case. If you have a warmer, protected micro-niche, try planting your seasonal Amaryllis outdoors, and leave it there well mulched over winter. I 've winter over Amaryllis in my backyard, but it hasn't reliably bloomed. It requires a full sun location and well amended soil to soak up nutrients to be stored in the bulb.
‘Mersea Yellow’ is similar to the orange red pineleaf penstemon in culture, except for requiring a bit more water. Native perennial to the Southwest. Its leaves are lighter green, but still evergreen, without the tinge of mahogany in winter. ‘Mersea Yellow’ is an excellent selection for the medium water-use zones of your landscape. One of the few yellow flowering penstemons.
There are many different sedum species and varieties of this delightful spreading groundcover. I took this picture on a garden tour in Angel Fire New Mexico, and have not been able to identify it yet. It is easy to see from the picture how it got its common name, stonecrop. Sedum groundcovers spread nicely in a low to medium water use area of gritty, well drained soil, and will do just fine in afternoon shade.
Summer flowering low water-use native tree, several varieties to choose from. Willow like green leaves. Cold hardy reliably in Zone 7, will winter over most years in Zone 6. The variety pictured in the close-up flower photo is "Lucrecia Hamilton", the variety in the third photo is 'Art's Seedless'. During early autumn snows, be quick to shake snow off the branches to avoid breakage.
Native to the plains, Coreopsis tinctoria, has naturalized throughout most of the U.S., especially in disturbed soil. Prefers moist sandy soil. An annual, it may last more than one year. Very showy flower with yellow outer rays, with a maroon blotch towards the center ray. Sow seeds in early spring. Heat tolerant, once a month watering is recommended for well drained soil.
Raspberry hybrid bush sage is very similar in appearance to Salvia greggii, blooming April through November. It's two-lipped flowers with a pleasant deep raspberry color, and the mahogany calyces contrast nicely. 'Raspberry Delight' is a hybrid cross between Salvia greggii 'Furman's Red' and and a high altitude collection of Salvia microphylla from central Arizona. Woody and brittle branches with small oval shaped leaves that hang on to the plant sometimes through the winter, as they do on S. greggii.
Mahonia repans is one of my favorite plants with four seasons of interest. Low growing and spreading evergreen shrub is native throughout the Rocky Mountains. Bright yellow berries in spring are followed by black berries in summer and reddish winter foliage. The leaves are thick, glossy and holly shaped. Creeping Oregon grape holly prefers amended, humusy soil that replicates its native habitat as an understory plant in woodlands, but is low water-use once established. It will spread to cover an area, but not invasive. Very attractive!
Elephand ears are plants grown from corms (called bulbs, but not true bulbs), with large leaves on upright stems. Colocasia leaves point downward (Alocasia leaves point upward). Colocasia gigantum and C. esculenta are two species most often used. These plants are grown primarily for their foliage and prominant veining, rather than flowers. The flowers are typical aroid type with a white to yellow or light green spathe, and may not even flower in shorter growing seasons.
Reseeding biennial, native to Texas, and the southeastern US. The red tubular flowers make it attractive to hummingbirds. The upright stalks are brittle and break off easily.
Standing cypress will flower the first year, and may, or may not come back a second year, but you should see some seedlings. Transplant those. The glossy green foliage to the right in this picture belongs to Anisacanthus quadrifidus wrightii, flame acanthus.
The most remarkable quality of Red Dragon Persicaria is its burgundy red patterned leaves and red stems, a plant grown much more for its foliage than flowers. (The flower stalk in the upper right is of Acanthus spinosus.) Not a native (native to China) it will come back if nipped by a late frost and will suffer sunburn in afternoon sun. Red Dragon may take 3 years before flowering, however, that is not a drawback.
The Crassulaceae family of plants fascinates me, and the sedums are one of its larger genera. I first saw ‘Frosty Morn” featured on a gardening program from Iowa, so I wondered whether it’d be drought tolerant. Shortly afterwards, I found it at our local nursery and planted in my xeristrip. It has never faltered. The only disfiguring occurrence is a little nipping by grasshoppers during early summer, which has never seemed to harm it, or other large leafed sedums.
Small but tough is Perky Sue. Woody base with thin short green leaves from which many stems shoot up to display many yellow daisy like flowers from April into fall. Many people know this plant by the genus name Hymenoxys, but has been changed to Tetraneuris in the last decade. There are a few relatives that look quite similar and are all equally valuable in the garden: T. acaulis and T. odorata.
Illinois bundleflower should be grown for its unusual characteristics of seedpods and leaves, if nothing else. A member of the legume or bean family, the seed pods turn dark brown, leathery and twisted in appearance and rattle in the wind in late fall. The compound, alternate, pinnate leaves fold when touched or when exposed to strong sunlight. Small white flowers in summer. Attracts butterflies, birds love its seeds. The plant can grow to be quite large if in high water-use areas.
Western ironweed is a prairie native to the Great Plains states. Mid-summer to fall deep purple flowers clusters appear at the top of stalks. Ironweed can be invasive, rooting madly down to a foot so control could be difficult. Drought tolerant and cold hardy for the right location.
Oregon grape holly is an evergreen holly-like shrub native to the Pacific Northwest Rockies down into California. Upright, it is slow growing but can reach a height of 8 feet. Best when grown in shade, especially out of afternoon sun. Prefers a more humusy soil but will only required once a month watering when established, however, can also be placed in medium and high water-use areas. Bright yellow flowers in spring, followed by dark blue berries in summer. The thick, glossy, holly-like leaves have spines at the points. Leaves turn from green to red in winter.
Texas beargrass is a grass-like perennial evergreen plant native in rocky and limestone soils from central Texas to the upper Rio Grande Plains and west to the Trans-Pecos and into S.E. Arizona. Not a true grass, Texas sacahuista is a member of the lily (Liliaceae ) family. It flowers in Amarillo in early April. A short flowering stem barely rises above the many thin leaves. The flowers appear rose or reddish on the outside before opening, are numerous, white to cream colored forming dense vertical clusters.