High Plains Gardening
The gardening website of the Texas High Plains Region
Late Spring/Summer
Blooms late spring into summer, usually during the months of May and June.
Scabiosa columbaria ‘Butterfly Blue’, though first discovered in Ireland, will thrive very nicely in your transition zone as a border plant along turf, where it’ll receive medium to medium high water. Amend the soil well with organic matter for rich blooms and keep it deadheaded to prolong blooms. Afternoon shade is recommended. A little more trouble than usual, but well worth the softening effect this compact, mounded and cheery plant brings to the border; a Perennial Plant of the Year for 2000.
Yellow honeysuckle is a much better choice, along with Loncera sempervivens, than the traditional and invasive Japanese honeysuckle usually sold. Fragrant and yellow blooming, a good climber and groundcover. Average garden soils with low and medium water-use. Can be low water-use once established.
Green sword-like foliage with striking bell or funnel shaped flowers that last only a day. Hundreds of different hybrids and cultivars in a wide range of colors, some early, mid and late summer blooming. Daylilies do better in medium, well-amended soil and a sunny location that enjoys afternoon shade, but they are versatile. Daylily leaves may exhibit alkalinity in clay soil. If this is the case, amend well with organic matter.
A Plant Select Plant for 2004, Pink Texas Skullcap has often been listed as a Zone 7 plant, but it is reliably cold hardy in Zone 6 and in protected Zone 5b sights. I’ve grown it in my xeristrip since 2000. Long blooming with no maintenance ever performed. These low growing, mounding skullcaps are excellent for Panhandle xeristrips and rock gardens. Native varieties are S. drummondii, and S. resinosa. The hybrid cultivar, S. x ‘Violet Cloud’, introduced by High Country Gardens, is an excellent violet skullcap as well as the natives.
Another American native vine, evergreen in more southern climates than ours, but cold hardy here. Fragrant and attractive coral flowers in spring and early summer. Attracts birds, butterflies and hummingbirds. Pleasant glossy green leaves. Not invasive. Medium water-use.
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