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

This week in my garden - Sept 22nd

 Zizotes milkweed in bloom!

I have planted innumerable milkweeds over the years. They never take, but I keep trying (see the three green milkweed I planted this year). In June of 2021 I purchased some zizotes milkweed. I knew it was the wrong time of year to be buying plants, but I did it anyway. And then I kind of forgot about it. It gets no soaker hose water, only the once a week yard sprinkle. This spring, I noticed the small plant come back up, and was pretty sure it was one of the milkweeds I planted.

This week it bloomed for the first time. It is still as tiny as when I bought it, but stil I am super excited to have an established milkweed.

Native grass

I purchased these two native grasses. And now I cannot remember which grass I purchased. I feel like they were little bluestem. Whatever they were, there are both still alive and going to seed. Woot!

Cardinals galore

Just this morning, I counted a total of 10 cardinals in the yard. This week, i also saw a Downy Woodpecker, in additional to our regular Ladderback visitor. And a Cooper's Hawk has been hanging around as well.

Everything in bloom and Butterflies everywhere

Despite not getting any recent rain, and very dry conditions, the garden is suddenly in its fall bloom. Lantana, Esperanza, Thryallis and Rock Rose are this week's highlights. And they butterflies love the lantana. We have seen so many gorgeous butterflies this week, including a very large Giant Swallowtail that has been hanging around. This Bordered Patch might be using the zexmania as its larval plant. 

Th Giant Swallowtail may be using our Lemon tree as a larval host. I will have to add Rusty Black-haw (Virburnum rufidulum) to my list of plants I want to buy!

Unknown - maybe milkweed?

I was looking at the solar garden, which hasn't fared very well. And smack in the middle of the garden I saw this little plant. I am not sure what it is.

Fall New natives

Texas Frog Fruit
Phyla Nodiflora

I planted three of these in the fence garden near the pond. Two of them were near the Mock Orange, and the other between the Beautyberry and Oakleaf Hydrangea. Of all the plants I put in the ground today, these are the ones most likely to live. Frog fruit is a very common plant, but not one I currently have in the garden. I am hoping it will fill in some of the mulchy areas, and bring small pollinators to the garden. It is a larval host for Phaon Crescentspot, Buckeye and White Peacock. 

 Texas Frogfruit can be used as an excellent ground cover and is evergreen in warm years. It is also evergreen in areas protected from frost. It spreads vigorously. Frogfruit generally is a good nectar plant for butterflies. It is an attractive plant rambling over boulders or the edges of hanging baskets. It also can tolerate drought and flooding.

This species is a member of the verbena family (family Verbenaceae), which includes about 75 genera and 3,000 species of herbs, shrubs, and trees, mostly of tropical and warm temperate regions. Among them, teak is a highly prized furniture wood, and Vervain, Lantana, Lippia or Frog Fruit, and Chase Tree or Vitex are grown as ornamentals.

Water Use: Low , Medium
Light Requirement: Sun , Part Shade
Soil Moisture: Dry , Moist
CaCO3 Tolerance: Medium
Heat Tolerant: yes

Soil Description: Sand, loam, clay, caliche, limestone. Poor drainage and saline soils okay.

Conditions Comments: Tolerates drought and flooding. Will go dormant during hard winters.

Senna lindheimer

I planted this in the solar garden, in a spot that does not get any extra water and is in full sun, because NG told me that it can get unhappy if it gets too much water. I have killed this plant once before, so we will see how this one does.

This is a larval host for sleepy orange and sulphur butterflies

Velvet-leaf wild sensitive-plant or Lindheimer's senna is a bushy perennial, 3-6 ft. high. Its yellow, 1 1/2 in. flowers are borne in terminal or upper axillary, spike-like racemes. The 5 oval petals are crimped at the edges. The compound leaves have 4-8 pairs of leaflets that are oval, sometimes pointed, and covered with soft hairs and are arranged spirally around the stems.

This plant is effective in a wildflower garden as either a specimen or background plant. The seeds provide an important source of food for birds.

Growing Conditions
Water Use: Low
Light Requirement: Sun , Part Shade
Soil Moisture: Dry
Soil Description: Dry, rocky soils. Limestone-based, Sandy, Sandy Loam

White sagebrush
Artemisia ludoviciana 

I was warned that this can spread very quickly. Even the wildflower center says this can be considered an invasive weed. I can't find much on it, but did find one site that said, " It is a host plant for both the American lady butterfly (Vanessa virginiensis, photos) and the painted lady butterfly (Vanessa cardui, photos). " If it proves to be too much, I can move it to be with the golden rod, which also spreads rapidly. The two plants can fight it out.

This is a stiff, aromatic, silvery-white perennial, 1 1/2-3 ft. tall, which can spread quickly to form large colonies. Shrub-like, white, densely matted with hairs, from rhizome. Small, yellowish flowers are secondary to the silver color of the erect stems and narrow leaves, created by a dense coat of hairs.

This is a common artemisia, with attractive, fragrant, whitish green foliage. Its adaptability and tendency to colonize makes it a good choice for a low-maintenance, knee- to waist-high groundcover. It can even take mowing.

Water Use: Low
Light Requirement: Sun
Soil Moisture: Dry
CaCO3 Tolerance: High
Drought Tolerance: High
Heat Tolerant: yes

Velvet-leaf mallow
Allowissadula holosericea

Another new-to-me native. It was compared to Turk's cap, which is an awesome plant. I put three of them in the pond fence garden. It says they need moist soil, but then it says they are good in a xeric garden bed and they do well in dry rocky soil. Kind of confusing. It says it need Part Shade, so we will see how it does in that part-shade bed.

An attractive and eye-catching, but coarse-textured, shrub that reaches about 6 feet in height. Its large, chartreuse, heart-shaped leaves are velvety to the touch. Velvet-leaf Mallow has a long flowering season which lasts as long as the weather is warm. Its orange-yellow five-petaled flowers are lovely and attractive to pollinators. The native habitat of this species is on dry, rocky soil in open woodlands on the Edwards Plateau and the Trans-Pecos in Texas and in southern New Mexico and northern Mexico.

Velvet-leaf Mallow is a good choice for a background plant in a xeric garden bed.

Light Requirement: Part Shade
Soil Moisture: Moist (?? Feel like this is wrong)
Conditions Comments: Velvet-leaf mallow is striking for its large, heart-shaped leaves and their luxurious texture and for delicate orange flowers. Over the course of the growing season, the plant may become bare underneath. The plant looks attractive with white mistflower, lantana, or big muhly planted in front of it.

Green Milkweed
Asclepia viridis

I can never seem to pass up Milkweed, even though I almost always kill it. I have one milkweed growing n the garden (Zizote) after having planted probably a dozen different plants through the years. And the staff of NG tell me this one is just as hard to keep alive. The one staff member bought four of them, and only one lived through the first summer.  Gotta try though. For what it is worth, (so I can recognize the corpses?), I planted two in the front sidewalk garden bed and one in the solar garden near the new senna plant.

Green Milkweed is a native, perennial forb or herb with alternate, entire leaves. The leaf margins are often wavy. Flowers are white and in an umbel, mostly one per plant. Upon close inspection, some rose or purple color is evident in the center of each individual flower (gynostegium). The milky substance that is exuded when a plant part is broken is very sticky, much resembling “Elmer’s glue.” These milkweeds bloom from late spring to middle summer.

This milkweed is common in pastures from Kansas to Texas. Generally avoided by cattle and horses. It can be found along roadsides, ditches, prairies, open areas, and other areas with little vegetative competition.

Water Use: Low
Light Requirement: Sun
Soil Moisture: Moist
Cold Tolerant: yes
Heat Tolerant: yes

Conditions Comments: This is another member of the milkweed family that certain butterflies love. It can be found growing in rich or poor soils and blooms off and on over ther growing season through the end of summer. Has a spreading, open growth form. Requires little water and full sun.

great info source: http://carolsworld.net/2020/04/19/green-milkweed-asclepias-viridis/

Swamp Milkweed
Asclepias incarnata

Probably won't grow well, as it needs a lot of water. I put this in the pond fence garden. No need to say any more, because I know this guy wont make it. Hard to grow, and I put it in my death spot where I have been unable to get anything to grow for years.  

It can go in sun or part-shade. Probably put it in part shade.

The large, bright, terminal blossoms of this tall, showy perennial are made up of small, rose-purple flowers. Deep pink flowers clustered at the top of a tall, branching stem, bearing numerous narrow, lanceolate leaves. Opposite, narrow, lance-shaped leaves line the erect, open-branched stem. Elongated, tan-brown seed pods persist into winter.

The juice of this wetland milkweed is less milky than that of other species. The genus was named in honor of Aesculapius, Greek god of medicine, undoubtedly because some species have long been used to treat a variety of ailments. The Latin species name means "flesh-colored."

Soil Description: Dry to mesic, rocky, shallow soils, well drained. Sand, loam, clay, caliche, limestone. Very adaptable.

Conditions Comments: Becomes leggy in fertile, moist soils.

Gregg's Dalea

I bought this thinking it was native to the Edward's Plateau, and then I got home and found it wasn't. So I just plopped this also in the pond fence garden.

Greggs prairie-clover or indigo bush is a 4-9 in., trailing sub-shrub, spreading 2-4 ft. Grown mostly for its silvery, blue-green, delicately compound leaves, the shrub is awash with clusters of tiny, pea-shaped purple flowers in spring and early summer.

This plant is a good ground cover for rocky slopes and exposed sites in the Southwest. Grown chiefly for its foliage, but also gets covered with purple blooms in summer. It will tolerate dry conditions well.

The species name “greggii” was named for Josiah Gregg, (1806-1850). He was born in Overton County, Tennessee. In the summer of 1841 and again in the winter of 1841-42 he traveled through Texas, up the Red River valley, and later from Galveston to Austin and by way of Nacogdoches to Arkansas. He took note of Texas geology, trees, prevalent attitudes, and politics. At the same time, Gregg began compiling his travel notes into a readable manuscript. His “Commerce of the Prairies”, which came out in two volumes in 1844, was an immediate success. In 1848 he joined a botanical expedition to western Mexico and California, during which he corresponded with and sent specimens to the eminent botanist George Engelman in St. Louis. Subsequently, the American Botanical Society added the Latin name “greggii” in his honor to twenty-three species of plants. Gregg died on February 25, 1850, as a result of a fall from his horse.

Water Use: Low
Light Requirement: Sun , Part Shade
Soil Moisture: Dry
Cold Tolerant: yes
Heat Tolerant: yes
Soil Description: Well-drained, dry granitic, sand, clay, loam, limestone, or gravelly soils with little organic content.
Conditions Comments: As a plant native to the Chihuahuan Desert region, where rains come in the summer, it will need some irrigation during dry summers, no more than twice a month. It must have good drainage in regions with wet winters, or else it will rot. Rainy autumns, too, may encourage new growth, which can then be damaged by winter freezes. May not survive temperatures below the teens and can take years to recover from such low temperatures.

New Natives

 Black Dalea - Thornless shrub up to 3 feet tall; stems gray to light brown, leaf bearing twigs thin, reddish brown. Occasional on shallow soil over limestone in unshaded upland situations. Leaves up to 1 inch long, divided into as many as 8 pairs of small leaflets and a terminal one on a central axis, leaflets 5 1/16 inch or less long, gland dotted on the lower surface. Glands visible under a 10x hand lens. Flowers in dense heads or spikes at the ends of branches, small, purple, opening from July to October. Fruit an inconspicuous capsule.

Water Use: Low
Light Requirement: Sun
Soil Moisture: Dry
Cold Tolerant: yes
Heat Tolerant: yes

Soil Description: Moist, rich, slightly acid soils. Dry, limestone soils. Limestone-based, Sandy, Sandy Loam, Medium Loam, Clay Loam, Clay

Conditions Comments: The fine ferny texture of Black dalea foliage contrasts well with other plants such as Prickly pear and grasses. Use this fast growing, mounding shrub in any dry garden that calls for both flowers and a defined form. Overwatering and fertilization can cause legginess, weak growth, and reduced flowering. Drought-resistant. Once established, this plant requires little or no maintenance.

Fragrant Mimosa The long, slender, intricately-branched stems of this 2-6 ft. deciduous shrub are curving or straight, with small thorns scattered along the branches. Leaves are delicately bipinnate. Sprawling, long-branched thorny shrub with clusters of aromatic flowers. The fragrant, pink flowers occur in soft, dense ball-shaped clusters about 1/2 in. in diameter.

Water Use: Low
Light Requirement: Sun , Part Shade
Soil Moisture: Dry
Cold Tolerant: yes
Heat Tolerant: yes
Soil Description: Rocky soils. Limestone-based, Caliche type, Sandy, Sandy Loam, Medium Loam, Clay Loam Clay

Conditions Comments: This thorny shrub is covered with small, very fragrant pink puffballs in the spring. It is a good nectar source for bees and butterflies. Great for the xeric garden. Plant away from high traffic areas. Can take extreme heat and harsh conditions once established.

Texas kidneywood is an unarmed, much-branched shrub, 3-10 ft. tall, with an open, airy structure and gland-dotted, aromatic, resinous leaves and flowers. Its spikes of white flowers are fragrant, as are the deciduous, finely divided leaves. Leaves up to 3-1/2 inches long, consisting of a central axis and as many as 40 small leaflets, each from about 1/4 - 1/2 inch long, pungent when crushed. Flowers white, small, with a delicate fragrance, arranged in spikes up to 4-1/2 inches long at the ends of branchlets, appearing intermittently from May to October, especially after rains. Fruit a pod about 3/8 inch long, often with a threadlike tip. Seed pods are somewhat persistent.

Leaves and leaflets vary considerably in size, from plant to plant and sometimes on the same plant. Leaflets may vary from under 1/4 inch long on branches in full sun, to more than 1/2 inch long in shaded situations. (PERS.OBS)

This tree and its relative, the more westerly E. orthocarpa, were once used in remedies for kidney and bladder ailments, hence the name.

Water Use: Low

Light Requirement: Sun

Soil Moisture: Dry

Cold Tolerant: yes

Heat Tolerant: yes

Soil Description: Dry, rocky, calcareous soils. Sandy, Sandy Loam, Medium Loam, Clay Loam, Clay, Limestone-based, Caliche type

Conditions Comments: Kidneywood foliage has a pungent, citrusy smell. Bees flock to the ambrosial flowers, which bloom at intervals through the warm months. The Dogface butterfly also eats kidneywood as larval food. Can create a small tree with proper pruning. May temporarily lose leaves during a dry spell. Drought-tolerant.

Pearl Milkweed Vine

Water Use: Low
Light Requirement: Part Shade
Soil Moisture: Dry
Cold Tolerant: yes
Heat Tolerant: yes

Conditions Comments: Green milkweed vine is not a bold plant but the green star-shaped flowers with a pearly irridescent center are lovely and curious. Use as a novel woodland-edge garden feature. Blooms best with plenty of sun, but does well in some shade also. The Large interesting seed pod open up to release silky seed threads and many seeds. Members of the Milkweed family are host to Queen and Monarch butterflies.

Back corner garden

I converted the back corner of our yard to native plants this April.  It is something I have been wanting to do for a while, but hesitant, as it is such a large plot of land.  But my twin brother came to visit, and encouraged me (and helped me) to dive in.  

So while he was here, we dug up all the grass. We also moved the bench that sat unused in the front yeard to be posited in the backyard.  Beofre I even started landscape, when the area was just dirt, it was already a new favorite place to sit.  For some reason, the birds do not seem to be as wary of me when I sit there, as compared to the front porch, and it is in full view of all the bird feeders.

So after all the hard work was done, I purchased a bunch of native plants and purchased some flagstone, and started to have fun. :)

When I originally planned the garden, I went to Natural Gardener and picked a bunch of plants and did a rough sketch of what I wanted where... but when I went back a week later, none of those plants were still there, so I had to improvise.

Last weekend, I also went down to the Valley's National Butterfly Center, where they have a whole collection of native plants.  Including a bunch of natives that are hard to get, or that I was not familiar with.  Unfortunately, I realized that at least three of

Coralberry - 4ft.  Shade or Part shade. Water usage: Low This small, mound-shaped, deciduous shrub with shredding bark on older wood and brown to purplish branchlets covered with short hairs visible under a 10x hand lens, usually grows to 4 ft. but can reach 6 ft. Its smooth, dull green leaves are opposite and roughly oval, tapering about equally to tip and base, up to 2 inches long but often less than 1 inch, with smooth, turned down margins and a rounded or broadly pointed tip. The greenish-white flower clusters are not as showy as the clusters of coral-pink to purple fruit up to 1/4 inch in diameter which remain on the plant through winter. Songbirds, ground birds, small mammals, and browsers use this plant for food, cover, and nesting sites.

I have been wanting to try this Texas Native for awhile, and the mostly shade portion of the garden seems like a good place to give it a go.  I bought two of the larger sized shrubs.  So it is nice to give the beginning garden a little dimension to start

Frost Weed - Verbesina virginica Up to 8 feet tall Low water usage This easy-to-grow Verbesina lends stately, dark green leaves and white, autumn flowers to the dappled shade found at the edges of woodlands, where it can form sizable colonies with its spreading rhizomes. Each stem has soft, fleshy green flanges running longitudinally down its length. When winter weather brings ice, the stems exude water that freezes into fascinating shapes, hence its common name Frostweed. This plant is best suited for naturalizing rather than formal landscapes.  Attracts butterflies

Another new native plant for me that I have been wanting to try. I saw these at the Butterfly center, and they are sort of weed-like, but apparently good for butterflies and do well in shade, so I thought the shade portion might be a good place for them.  I  am hoping they live and spread, because I'd love to try some also in my opposite corner garden.  With "weed" in its name, I am hoping this is a new tough and easy plant for me to introduce.

Lyre Leaf Sage  Salvia lyrata 12 x 12”. Part shade to shade. Compact reseeding perennial with low purple tinged foliage and taller spikes of lavender flowers from Feb to April. Can form a solid cover with regular watering.  It even takes mowing and can be walked on. Flowers attract hummingbirds and butterflies.

A new native for me as well.  Wildflower.org says it is a ajuga-like ground cover, which is good, since all of my ajuga died in the drought last year.  Hopefully this will be tougher, and fill in theis shade area with butterfly attracting flowers!

Crucita aka Blue Mistflower: Chromolaena odorata is a deciduous sub-shrub in North America. (It is a shrub in the tropics.) Branched stems curve upward and are usually 2-6 ft. in height. Somewhat triangular-shaped leaves are virtually evergreen in extreme s. TX. Lilac to bright purplish-blue flowers cluster together into showy, ageratum-like flower heads. Dies back to the roots in hard winters.

On the strong recommendation of the Austinite who worked there, I purchased two plants called Crucita.  She said she had it growing in her home garden in Austin, and it did great.  When I came back home, and looked it up, it turns out Crucita is Blue Mistflower.  I purchased one last year for the front garden, and it did not make it through this last winter... so we will see how these two do.  I put one in this garden, and one in a different garden.

Low Croton - Berlandier croton or croton humilis Pepperbush Part shade.  Wildflower.org has almost no information on this plant. Texas A&M has more information.  A strong-scented, small shrub with oval leaves and light brown to pale gray bark, Berlandier croton grows in dry sandy soils in clearings in thickets and chaparrals in the Rio Grande Plains, usually found coming up through other shrubs. Small clusters of white flowers appear throughout the year following rains. Male and female flowers can be on the same plant or on separate plants. Seeds, enclosed in a 3-lobed capsule, are eaten by many birds, and the leaves and flowers provide food for butterflies and caterpillars. It needs well-drained soil and part shade to do its best, but otherwise it is an adaptable and very drought-tolerant plant.

This says it is hard to Zone 9, so I shouldn't get too attached to this plant.  I might dig it up and pot it.    I bought it at the Butterfly center, after seeing one there, and having someone say it was great for butterflies.  

A new garden

 Big red sage. (Native)Salvia penstemonoides 2’x2’  Sun to part shade.  Uncommon Texas native with glossy evergreen foliage and magenta flowers on tall spikes for 3-4 months in summer.  Prefers well drained soil. Very drought tolerant once established.  Attracts hummingbirds

Lewis Blue flax. Linux Lewisii  12” x 12” Sun or part shadeAiry perennial with very vertical, delicate green foliage topped with sky blue, cup shaped blooms with bright yellow centers mostly in the spring.  Often reseeds

Pink Gaura (Native) Guara lindheimer 2 x 2 Sun or Part Shade. Lovely reseeding native perennial

Lyre leaf sage. (Native) 

Autumn sage white

Pot. 2 Citharexylum berlandieri (Berlandier's fiddlewood) - 

part shade Up to 18 feet tall grows in well drained clay and clay-loam soil. It is found in thickets, flats, hillsides, and semi-desert roadsides in the Rio Grande Plains.

2 Verbesina virginica  Frost weed - National Butterfly center Up to 4 feet tall part shade to shade  Good as understory in landscape restorations within its range. Also useful as a transitional plant between manicured and wild areas.

Pot Mexican Olive Cordia boissieri - Sun, part shade    It is native no farther north than south Texas because it can't tolerate cold winters, but it has been successfully tried as far north as Austin, where cold winters are likely to cause some die-back

Tree front yard 1 Western Soapberry Sapindus saponaria var. drummondii   Sun, part shade  High drough tolderance 10 foot tree An attractive and hardy tree, useful as a specimen or in groves. Can become a large tree in deep soil. In shallow soil it often remains a small tree. The fruits are considered to be poisonous to humans although they produce a good lather in water and are used in Mexico as a laundry soap. Soapberry often suckers and form groves. Tolerant of drought, wind, heat, poor soil, air pollution and other city conditions. Not affected by disease or insects. Currently difficult to find in the nursery trade.

2 crucita Blue mist flower - part shade

1 pigeon berry soil moisture:  moist

1 huisache - A 15-20 ft., multi-trunked tree or shrub  Full sun high drought tolerance  This beautiful tree casts a soft filtered light but be careful when planting it, because it has sharp, needle-like thorns on the trunk and branches.

Benefit

1 low croton  Not sure which one  Berlandieri? It needs well-drained soil and part shade to do its best, but otherwise it is an adaptable and very drought-tolerant plant.