This Week in My Garden - Oct 20th

 Banded Scythris moth on Frostweed

In my attempt to find cool stuff going on in my garden each week, I have gotten into the habit of looking closer at the plants. And the closer I look, the more I find!

Yesterday, I was taking a photo of my now-blooming Frostweed. And I noticed that it was covered in small bugs. I took a photo of them, ran it through Google, and they appear to be the Banded Scytris moth.

Look how many there are! I count 10 in just this photo. One of my great joys in gardening with Native plants is reveling in the life that they bring. I know that, in time, bringing more bugs into the yard will ultimately bring more birds.

A new soaker hose

I have been intending to add a soaker hose to the right-hand street garden. With this incredible drought we are in, the plants in that garden are looking incredibly sad. The poor little Dutchman's pipevine is being hand watered with waterbottles, whenever I remember. And the frost (house-side) of the garden is basically just Brazilian Rock Rose and weeds. But finding that my zizotes milkweed still lived and the Phlox I planted was still hanging on really motivated me to get it watered.

So I added the hose. But to put those in there, I really needed to pull out the grass. Partly to let the hose lie flat, and partly so the grass wouldn't grow even more with access to water.  And then with the hose there, I realized I could plant some of my new plants there!

Blue Aster?
Symphyotrichum laeve

This weed popped up in my garden. It looks pretty weedy, and is too tall for a plant growing that close to the edge. But I am not one to pull something that is native and is strong enough to make it in my garden :) 

So, not knowing what it was, I decided to let it stay. Around town, I started to see Aster-like flowers or similar weeds. And sure enough, my weed bloomed today, and it was full of small aster-like flowers.  The bumble bees really seem to love it.

At first I thought it was Drummond's Aster. But the flower's didn't look the right color. I then found a native called Tall or Willow Aster, but I think the petals on that are much thinner. So then I found something called Blue Aster, that I think might be it.

Here was some info I found on it: Asters have been known as keystone plants of many habitats in our region, and while this group of wildflowers has changed and diverged over time, flowers of the Symphyotrichum genus are some of the best for wildlife. They can occupy a variety of spaces in any landscape, Symphyotrichum laeve offers the benefit of adaptability for moist to dry soils, and part-shade conditions. Symphyotrichum species often bloom later in the season, peaking in September and October at a time when pollinators may have trouble finding other sources of food.

https://www.bugloversnativeplants.com/shop/p/symphyotrichum-laeve-smooth-blue-aster#:~:text=Symphyotrichum%20laeve%20is%20a%20hardy,long%2Dlasting%20blooms%20throughout%20autumn.

What have I done? Native Plant Sale

I got to the Native Plant sale early (about a half hour before they opened). I had a list of items I wanted, and managed to get all but one of the plants on the list (the other had already sold out)

I then added a few interesting plant.

And bought one plant by mistake (I thought I grabbed a Black Dalea, but it was actually Compact Prairie Clover that was under the sign)

And one plant didn't have a label. I thought I would remember what kind of sedge it was. But I have already forgotten.

Escarpment Black Cherry
Prunus serotina var eximia

Okay, sun to part-shade. It could grow up to 50 feet (could grow 2 - 4 feet annually, so it won't be big any time soon) I put this in the front yard where it can get a lot of sun, near to the Mexican buckeye. I  retrospect, maybe too near?

Escarpment Black Cherry is a distinct and isolated geographic variety of Black Cherry (Prunus serotina) found only in the calcareous soils of central Texas. It is distinguished physiologically from other P. serotina varieties by almost or entirely hairless leaves with more coarsely toothed margins, longer petioles, and, at up to 50 ft tall, a height intermediate between the larger Eastern Black Cherry (P. serotina var. serotina) and the smaller Southwestern varieties, virens and rufula.

WARNING: though the cherries are edible, the rest of the plant is poisonous if eaten, including the seeds. Provides a beautiful yellow fall color. Propagation: seed.

Water Use: Low , Medium
Light Requirement: Sun , Part Shade
Soil Moisture: Moist
Soil pH: Alkaline (pH>7.2)
CaCO3 Tolerance: High
Drought Tolerance: Medium
Cold Tolerant: yes
Heat Tolerant: yes
Soil Description: Rich, moist but well-drained, calcareous soils.
Conditions Comments: Escarpment black cherry is known for the beauty and quality of its wood. The green leaves turn to yellow in the fall. It is easy to grow and will reward you with dangling, lace-like blossoms in the spring. Wildlife eat the fruits. Prefers moister sites and more of a mineral, well drained soil.

Wafer Ash
Ptelea trifoliata

A small understory tree heavily used by pollinators as a nectar source. Small white flowers in the spring.

5 - 8 feet height. Tolerant of different soils and sunlight conditions

I out this is the front yard near the street (between the crepe Myrtle and Desert Willow)

Water Use: Low , Medium , High
Light Requirement: Sun , Part Shade , Shade
Soil Moisture: Dry , Moist , Wet
Soil pH: Circumneutral (pH 6.8-7.2)
CaCO3 Tolerance: Medium
Soil Description: Moist to dry, well-drained loams. Sandy, Medium Loam Sandy Loam, Clay Loam Clay, Limestone-based, Acid-based, Calcareous.
Conditions Comments: It is an attractive, tall shrub or small understory tree, for both moist conditions and dry rocky sites. If grown in full sun and cut back, wafer ash will be quite bushy. Sweet nectar of this plant attracts many species of butterflies. All parts are aromatic. Prefers moist soil such as a watered garden or seep area.

Eve's Necklace
Styphnolobium affine

5-8 ft spineless shrub tree. Part Shade. Well drained. Grows from seed to 6 feet in 3 years. With low water and dry soil, plus a somewhat large tree, I put this in the front year, where it will be shaded by the live oak, as a back plant to the street garden.

Water Use: Low
Light Requirement: Part Shade
Soil Moisture: Dry
Soil Description: Well-drained soils. Sandy, Sandy Loam, Medium Loam, Clay Loam, Clay, Limestone-based.
Conditions Comments: Eve's necklace is so named because this tree blooms clustered pink flowers that mature into black, bead-like strings of seeds. The planting site must be well-drained or it will get chlorotic. It grows from seed to 6 ft. in 3 years. This plant is most attractive

Wooly Ironweed
Vernonia lindheimeri

Native perennial blooming pink to purple from early summer to early fall. Found mostly in Edward's Plateau. 10 - 30 inches in height. Sun to light shade, low water use, needs well drained soil. Spreads by rhizomes to make small stands.

This is small and needs little water. It grows in clay, so it would be good for my street garden. I put this in the front of the street garden near the Fall Aster.

Water Use: Low
Light Requirement: Sun
Soil Moisture: Dry
Soil pH: Circumneutral (pH 6.8-7.2)
Cold Tolerant: yes
Heat Tolerant: yes
Soil Description: Dry caliche. Clay, Clay Loam, Medium Loam, Sandy Loam.
Conditions Comments: Woolly ironweed has an upright form and the colorful, showy blooms are distinctive. Needs well-drained conditions. The leaf undersides feel and readily appear hairy, hence the name "woolly ironweed". Great, underused perennial for the garden and meadow.

Western Ironweed
Vernonia baldwinii

Full sun, low water, deer resistant, attracts birds and butterflies. I picked this up unplanned. But how can you resist a plant with this description. 3 - 5 feet. This plant aggressively colonizes. I love to read this, as I think maybe I won't kill this plant. This is where I sometimes get frustrated though. The NPSOT said it needs low water. Wildflower Center says it needs moist soil. Which is it? I don't typically buy things that need moist soil. It does say it likes basically any soil, so I put it in the street garden on the right hand side near the variegated yucca, and in front of the bamboo Muhly.

Compact Prairie Clover
Dalea compacta

This is the plant I bought because it was under the Black Dalea sign. Whoops. 

There is almost no information on the Wildflower site about this plant, not even whether it likes sun or shade. NPSOT has more information. It is does not seem to be an Edwards Plateau plant, but the map does show it grows as far west as Dripping. But it says "There is currently no information about using this plant in home landscape" It does say it needs sun and low water requirements. I am put this in the right hand street garden near the Brazilian rock roses. We'll see how it does

Barbara's Buttons
Marshallia caespitosa

Upright perennial, 8 - 20 inches, so very small. Low maintenance required. Drought tolerant. Good border edge or filler, perennial garden, rocky hillside, and rock gardens. Propagation: division, transplant. This was only a $4 plant. I am betting it doesn't make it a year, because it is so very small. I put this is the right hand street garden neat the Phlox and zizotes milkweed.

Water Use: Low
Light Requirement: Sun , Part Shade
Soil Moisture: Dry
Soil Description: Sandy or calcareous soils. Sandy, Sandy Loam, Limestone-based, Medium Loam, Clay Loam, Clay
Conditions Comments: Barbara's-buttons is an upright perennial with solitary or several, unbranched stems. Dainty balls of white, fragrant flowers are borne on slender, leafless stalks arising from a rosette of narrow leaves.

Yellow Passionflower

Passiflora Lutea

Part Shade. Soil: Moist.  Whoops. Didn't see the moist soil bit when I picked this plant up. I really need to not pick up random plants that catch my eye! But wait, the NPSOT website says Water Requirement: Low. I just don't understand how a plant can have water use low, and soil moisture Wet? Well, I don't have any moist soil, so it will get dry soil whether it likes it or not.

I bought this, but then realized I don't have a lot of part-shade fence area available. But then i read it can sprawl on the ground. Sprawl it will be! 

I planted one near the bench in the right back corner garden and one in the street right hand garden.

And one in the right-hand street garden

Water Use: Low
Light Requirement: Part Shade
Soil Moisture: Moist
CaCO3 Tolerance: Medium
Soil Description: Limestone-based, Sandy, Sandy Loam, Various well-drained soils.
Conditions Comments: This climbing or trailing vine has greenish-yellow flowers, that give way to purple or black berries. Wide, shallowly lobed leaves with entire margins turn an attractive yellow in fall. This is a major food plant for several species of butterfly larvae.

Big Muhly
Muhlenbergia capillaris

3 - 6 feet, so fairly tall with a 1 - 2 foot spread. Can live in Sun or Part Shade

Seep Muhly

1-2 feet, so much shorter. Any soil type, 2 to 3 ft spread. Full sun. Medium water

This Week in my Garden - Oct 12, 2025

Bees Galore!

There is nothing I love more than seeing all the activity of bees and flys at work at my plants. This afternoon, there were at least 4 bumble bees / carpenter bees buzzing around my Esperanza and Duranta, and a number of native and honey bees on the yellow flower I can't identify. I tried to follow the bumble bees back to their hole in the ground, but I never was able to.

 Clouded skipper

I saw this guy fluttering around the garden. I really like his double set of wings. It seems that Flame Acanthus is a larval plant for this. So woot!

Getting ready to bloom

This week, the yellow flower that I still have not confidently identified (cowpen daisy, maximillian sunflower?) is in bloom, and the frost weed and white mist flower are getting ready to bloom. I always coincide (or hope to) the blooming of the white mist flower with the arrival of Monarchs. Hopefully they coincide this year!

It's Alive!

I had thought my Post Oak, purchased in 2018 and planted in my solar garden, was dead. But I was roaming around the garden this week, looked under the Mutabilis rose bush, and saw it growing!  For a plants that is 6 years old, it is embarrassingly small. I know it is a slow grower, but it is not bigger than the day I bought it!

And the garden has grown around it, so it is in pretty deep shade, so I doubt its growth will accelerate But hey, it's alive!!

New Plants

Sideoats Gramma
Bouteloua curtipendula

I purchased three small Sideoats gramma. i am trying to introduce some native grasses into my bed, as they provide good food for birds.

2-3 ft stems with purplish, ot-like spikelets. The basal foliage often turns shade of purple and red in the fall

Water Use: Medium
Light Requirement: Sun , Part Shade
Soil Moisture: Dry , Moist
CaCO3 Tolerance: Medium
Drought Tolerance: High
Cold Tolerant: yes
Heat Tolerant: yes
Soil Description: Medium-textured, well-drained soils. Disturbed, igneous, limestone-based sands, loams, and clays.
Conditions Comments: Often found growing with Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), but doesn't compete well with very tall grasses.

Use Ornamental: An attractive grass good for wildflower meadows, prairie restorations, and garden accents.
Use Wildlife: Provides bird food, nesting material, and cover, as well as graze for mammals.
Conspicuous Flowers: yes
Attracts: Birds , Butterflies
Larval Host: Green Skipper butterfly, Dotted Skipper butterfly
Deer Resistant: High

Blue Gramma Grass
Bouteloua gracilis

Only 12-14 in. in full flower, this is among the shortest of the native ornamental grasses. It is fine-leaved and produces blue-green seedheads which are suspended horizontally like tiny brushes from the tip of each stem. The plant turns tan when dormant. Blue grama grows in bunches in the south, and as a sod-former in the north and at high elevations. It is a perennial.

Water Use: Low , Medium
Light Requirement: Sun
Soil Moisture: Dry
CaCO3 Tolerance: Medium
Drought Tolerance: High
Cold Tolerant: yes
Heat Tolerant: yes
Soil Description: Well-drained, low organic content, gravelly soils or sandy loams, clays. Calcareous or granitic.
Conditions Comments: The most drought-tolerant native turf grass, more so than Buffalograss. Can survive with as little as 7 inches of rain annually. The drier it is, the less likely it will be to form a solid mat by rhizomes; it will stay in separate clumps. For this reason, it is often mixed with Buffalograss and/or wildflowers for a solid cover. The taller you let it grow, the less water it will need, because its roots will be shaded.

Use Wildlife: Graze, Seeds-granivorous birds
Conspicuous Flowers: yes
Interesting Foliage: yes
Attracts: Birds , Butterflies
Larval Host: Skippers

Kidney wood
Eysemhardtia texana

I already have one of these plants, but couldn't remember. I think it is one of the two plants growing in my street bed. Now, I have a second :) It can grow big, so i will have to think about where I want a large plant...

This week in my garden - October 3, 2025

Native Find! Pearl Milkvine

I purchased and tried to grow this plant last year... and it died. Then, when i was gathering chicken fencing to use in the backyard to keep the dogs in, I found a plant that looked a lot like that same Milkvine. But I had to pull it up to get to the fence. But just today, as i was sitting in the back bench, I looked at a vine growing up the iron fencing, and thought it might be milkvine... or morning glory. So i took out iNat, and it identified it as milkvine.

New Plant: Gregg's Tube tongue

Justicia pilosells

When I was at Natural Gardener last week, one of the staff excitedly mentioned this rare native, but when she went to look for it, it was already sold. She said she had come across this species when she worked in Dallas, but hasn't seen it since (in 12 years or so). So when I saw them there today, I couldn't resist. The staff today couldn't tell me much about it, but I decided to splurge and try something very new. They were able to tell me the grower is a small grower in Dripping who focuses on rare native plants. 

There isn't much online. I see this repeated everywhere:  Usually found growing in a colony, and looks best when planted en masse. Great addition to a shade or woodland garden. Larval and nectar food plant for various species of checkerspot butterflies. Good for wetland gardens and habitat.

At $15 a pop, en masse isn't going to happen. I bought two.

We'll give it a try and see what we learn. If it is a wetland plant, it won't last long in my garden.  But the label on the plant from NG said it was drought resistant.  Hmmm.

Yucca Plant Bugs

I found these crawling all over my weeping blue yucca. I took pictures to identify them and learned they were, unsurprisingly perhaps, Yucca Plants Bugs.

The Ohio State University page says "the bugs further reduce the aesthetic value of yucca blades by depositing spent yucca extract in the form of black, tarry waste spots. The little black waste and yellow spotting on the branch above is a result of the bug." Well, they definitely deposit black spots and cause yellow spotting. I'm not so concerned about the aesthetic value, as much as the eco-value.

Everything I read about these bugs gives information on how to eradicate them with pesticides. It says the bugs could eventually kill the plant.  I will watch and see what happens. My hope is that these bugs become some yummy food for a lizard or bird. It seems kind of hard to believe that these little bugs could kill a whole plant. And if they are yucca bugs, presumably if they killed the yuccas, they would no longer have any food to eat, thus ending their life cycle.

So, let's see!

It must be Fall, if the Fall Asters are blooming!

The first blooms started this week. 

And the butterflies continue to amaze me!

Common Buckeye