Agarita Notes

 Agarita (Berbis trifoliolata) (2020)

Exposure:  Sun or part-sun
Seasonal Interest:  yellow spring flowers,  red berries
Size:  2- 6ft x 6ft
Evergreen
Hardy to 15 degrees

Agarita is a rounded shrub with beautiful gray-green, holly-like foliage and clusters of fragrant yellow flowers from February through April. With its armor of spiny evergreen leaves, this plant provides a perfect shelter for small wildlife (birds, rodents, rattlesnakes) as larger animals tend not to browse the foliage.  

Flowers
"The bright yellow, saffron-scented flowers are especially attractive to bees.  The early blooming period of the plant (as early as January or February) provides copious amounts of pollen and nectar for the bees at a time where there is precious little to be had.  Agarita is preceded only be mistletoe in the annual blooming cycle of bee plants in Texas. Its flowers are also unusual in having stamens with touch-sensitive bases, which, when triggered, strike the nectar-seeking bee on the head, covering it in pollen.  The fresh flowers of all Texas species Berberis are also entirely edible"  Remarkable Plants of Texas, pg 109

Fruit
The fruit that follows is a bright red berry that is a magnet for birds and small mammals and which makes a delicious jelly. "There is evidence going back to 7000BCD (Baker Cave, ValVerde County) that early Americas ate the berries.  Ripening in May and June, the berries are one of the earlies fruits of the season, but even when ripe, they are highly acidic... The Apache are known to have made a type of jelly from the fruit as well. The roasted seeds have been used as a substitute for coffee.

The best way to collect the fruit is to place a sheet or upturned umbrella around the base and to whack the bush with a stick or broom.

Take a knife to the bark of any stem, and you will find a surprisingly bright yellow flesh beneath.  The yellow coloring, present in both the stems and roots, was prized by the native American and early settlers as a source for a yellow and tan-orange dye. "Berlandier, one of the earlies trained botanists to collect in Texas, noted in 1828 that the pounded rooms were use to make a yellow dye."  Current day craftsmen use the yellow wood in carvings and for beads.  A 1977 article in Texas Parks and Wildlife gave instructions for dyeing Easter eggs with an extract of this plant

Medicinal Uses
The roots contain antimicrobial alkaloid named berberine.  It has been used as a dressing for impetigo, a skin infection, and ringworm. A decoction of the roots was also used in frontier times for toothache.  berberine, which can be derived from many species in this genu, has a weak physiological effect but in sufficient quantities it can cause fatal poisoning.

Origin of Name
Agarito, Spanish for "Little Sour," name for it highly acidic fruit. Berberis is the latinized form of berberys, an Arabic name of the fruit.  Some workers place the species in the genus Mahonia, named in honor of Bernard M'Mahon (1775-1816) a prominent American horticulturist.  Trifoliolata refers to the compound of leaves of three leaflets

Personal History
I have wanted an agarita for awhile.  They are all over our backyard, but digging them up has always been very difficult. In April 2019, I managed to dig one up and keep it alive for a few months, but the heat of summer killed it. So in 2020, I dug one up in February.  It made it through the summer, and seems to be thriving, so I will now count it among my 'permanent' plants.  

Couldn't resist buying something

It has been at least a month since I have planted something in the ground, maybe longer.  And the days are getting longer and warmer.  We have a whole week of nice weather ahead of us.  So, I couldn't resist a trip to Leaf to look at their clearance plants.  Sadly, there were no new plants there, just the same little plants that had been there for the last few weeks.  

I decided to just go ahead and buy them, not even knowing what they were.  One was identified as a photina.  Not a plant I would normally buy as it is non-native, but I put it in the ground anyway.

They also had Emerald Snow Lorapetulum, which looks pretty in the photos, but there is not a whole lot of anectdotal photos yet... I guess a newer plant.  One of the plants I purchased was identified as a "hibiscus", but the persons checking me out felt like it was mis-marked and probably a Skyflower Duranta.  Its leaves certainly look more like a Duranta then a hibsicus to me... And the last plant, they had no idea what it was.  Some kind of sage or salvia, maybe?  Ah well, not my most successful purchases, but for $12, it at least got me digging in the dirt :o)

I also decided to put my Oakleaf Hydrangea in the ground today.  I may regret it, if a cold front blows in, in the next two weeks, but maybe I can cover it up...

An irruption of finches

 

I learned a new word this week :)

FlameLeaf Sumac in the fall!

 

Not Maximillian Sunflowers -- Plateau Goldeneye

Learned today they are Plateau Golden Eye 10.28.2024

 What I had thought were Maximillian Sunflowers, turn out to be Cowpen Daisies (Verbesina encelioides). Not a very exciting name, but I do love their mid October blooms!

Plateau Goldeneye  

Viguiera dentata

Toad Lily

This was a plant I picked up on clearance this spring.  I honestly didn't even know what it was, but I really loved its variegated leaves.  How awesome it is, when a plant you pick up for its foliage, also turns out to have a beautiful flower!

Glorious Fall

Fall is certainly a wonderful time for a Texas gardener.  And this Fall seems even better than  most. 

The heat left earlier than normal; we had a September full of rain, and while October proposes to be dry and clear with the cooler temps, watering is a manageable feat.  

And *everything* is in bloom!

When we first moved here, Dave threw a bunch of wildflower seeds on the ground. I honestly don't remember much coming up that first year, but now, every fall, for about two weeks, the whole area outside the fence explodes in yellow. I believe these are Maximilian Sunflowers.  For most fo the year, they are a sort of ugly weed, but ahhhh come October...

And the roses which have valiantly fought the heat all summer, are now showing their glory in the cooler temps!  Three weeks ago, this rose looks 95% dead, with only a few leaves left. 

Last fall, I planted this small little Lantana.  I honestly don't even remember where I got it from. It may have been the one that popped up in my asparagus bed that I transplanted.  It might have been one that I bought on clearance at Lowe's.  Where ever I got it from,  I know it was only a couple of inches tall.  

I planted it in an attempt to cover up a dead grass patch.  I added some Mexican feather grass and an Esperanza and then this spring added some Russian sage I had gotten on clearance.  Well, this Lantana has gotten *gigantic*.  It has swallowed the Esperanza and Feathergrass (I will need to transplant them further away next spring).  And it adds this great pop of color to what was a brown patch of dead grass.  Not to mention a wonderful home for lizards and feast for pollinators.

One of my favorite flowers this time of year is the Lion's Tail, they burst forth with firework-like orange bursts in the mid-fall. I have been working on this area for awhile.  I started with one bush, realized I wanted more for an impact, and have since purchased a number of others... that have all died.  Now, the one on the left is in its second (maybe third) year, and seems pretty established.  Last year, however, I had a white mist flower in front of it, and you couldn't even see the Lion Tail blooms.  So this spring, I moved the mist flower to a different bed, which gives these a lot more visibility.  Now I want to add some low flowers in front, to hide the stalky bottoms of this gorgeous bush... and I still want to add one more Lion's Tail next spring.  But for now, I am just happy to see the orange blooms!

View from my porch

Okay, so it is true, the morning glory has taken over, and i seriously need to get it under control, and ideally move it away from the garden.  But for now, i really love how it is climbing the light post.  The back porch has a very verdant feel, with the huge fire bush, even larger Esperanza and wall of leaning morning glory. A great place to enjoy the cool mornings!

And then there is, of course, my plumbago.  This is my all-time favorite plant. The one I have only been able to grow in this one spot. The dozen or so other plumbagos planted elsewhere have either perished in the hot summers, or frozen over the winter. But every fall, this guy shows his stuff.  My heart...

New Garden Bed

I planted a new garden bed where the old sandbox used to be.  I had some extra plants, and this area was another eye sore in the back yard. It isn't much to look at now, but I put the photo in, so I can compare how it grows over time.

It has some New Zealand flax, a Dwarf Pomegranate that I grew from a cutting, a Coralberry that I bought from Natural Gardener... a plant I have been wanting for awhile, some ruellia that had seeded in my asparagus garden, a Mexican bush sage cutting, a Rock Rose that I found on clearance and some lantana cuttings.  Not much to look at now, but all things start small :) I have the tomato cage on the Coralberry, because this sandy area was a favorite place for Domino to dig, and since the Coralberry is the one full price plant in the bed, I didn't want it to be dug up.