Essays

Wild On The Prairie: Plants

Adaptive Horticulture
March 11, 1999

The Midland Native Plant Society loves the beauty found in the American Southwest. We are proud of our homeland: the canyons, the plains, the mountains - every nook and cranny one can find traveling about this glorious land. We are responsible citizens, as well, actively promoting the conservation of precious water resources.

We are your neighbors and friends. You know someone, we are sure, that has a Salvia greggii, or a Texas Sage, or a Texas Red Oak, or one of hundreds of other species of plants that thrive in our hot dry summers or cold wintry blasts. We believe our regional horticulture should reflect our homeland, and broadcast our love of it.

Everybody has a responsibility to take care of their own home, and home is not just the little plot of ground around the house. Home is the region in which we live. We are suffering a serious drought that is beginning its seventh year. Long droughts occur every twenty years in West Texas and should teach us to responsibly respect water by never ever wasting water. We should honor it as well, but what does it mean to honor water?

Everyone knows many ways to conserve water in the home, but what about outdoors? Making sure that water systems do not let water run into the street is an answer everybody knows. Slow, deep watering that encourages roots to penetrate far into the soil is a positive first step. Watering only when plants show signs of stress is the next step. That is a tough lesson to learn, since automatic irrigation systems provide a sense of security from having to worry about when and how much to water. Mulching is another step. Bark, stone, cottonhulls, pecan shells, and other materials spread two to five inches deep in the flower beds can cut watering needs in half.

The next step is where the Midland Native Plant Society comes in, since we love to experiment with trying “new” plants. Some of us have been doing it for years, and we have grown to love many beautiful plants that you may have never considered adding to your home landscape.

We have developed a top ten list, our AWESOME
BLOSSOMS. One special favorite is Salvia greggii, Autumn Sage, a subshrub that blooms pink or red or white, and many shades in between. Blooming from March until October, in successive waves of glory, it brings our nesting Black-chinned Hummingbirdsin for a feast, and then entices the regular four migrant
hummingbird species that regularly visit Midland County fromAugust to October.

Two more of our favorites, the Texas Lantana and the Turk’s Cap are plants brought to our homeland by the earliest settlers. Blue Mealy Sage and Golden Texas Columbine were introduced to Midland in the early 1980’s. The Columbines have become a plant that neighbors share whenever seedlings appear.

Red Yucca has long been used as a landscape plant, as have several forms of Gaillardia, also known as Indian Blanket.Our remaining three AWESOME BLOSSOMS are ones we hope that will become more widely available and, therefore, more widely used in home landscapes. Flame acanthus has orange tubular blossoms from July to frost, bringing hummingbirds to busily gather nectar. Blue-Mist Flower brings butterflies in droves. Some of our members have seen as many as seventy giant red Queen butterflies working one small three-foot patch! The last of our ten awesome blossoms is Four-nerve Daisy, with a lovely yellow blossom that thrives in the hottest and driest corners of the yard. It is a native of Midland County!

Our native plants reflect the limitations of the local environment, surviving long dry spells, such as the present drought. We spend a great deal of money on the beautification of our yards and, in many cases, unrealistically attempt to recreate landscapes of other places.

Members of the local Native Plant Society Chapter are proud of the many beautiful species of naturally adapted plants found growing in the American Southwest. The landscape potential of native plants has not yet been fully explored and many members feel they are participating in the creation of a horticulture that is truly West Texan.

Citizens of the Llano Estacado can create beautiful home landscapes with plants that need relatively little supplemental irrigation. Groundwater is limited in our homeland, and Native Plant Society members follow a conservative belief – it is best not to use water lavishly.

The current drought is not severely affecting the average homeowner chiefly due to the foresight of creating Lake Ivie (which was built to slow the usage of our precious underground water). If the drought lasts one more year, however, the supply in Lake Ivie might dwindle low enough to cause strict conservation measures.

Preserve our homeland -- use native plants in your landscape!