Nature and Gardening

6653 readers

2 users here now

All things green, outdoors, and nature-y. Whether it's animals in their natural habitat, hiking trails and mountains, or planting a little garden for yourself (and everything in between), you can talk about it here.

See also our Environment community, which is focused on weather, climate, climate change, and stuff like that.

(It's not mandatory, but we also encourage providing a description of your image(s) for accessibility purposes! See here for a more detailed explanation and advice on how best to do this.)

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

alyaza@beehaw.org

NataliePortland@beehaw.org

LallyLuckFarm@beehaw.org

remington@beehaw.org

Landscape plant alternative to plumbago (Plumbago auriculata) (beehaw.org)

submitted 1 year ago by PlantJam@beehaw.org to c/greenspace@beehaw.org

2 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Plumbago is extremely popular as a landscape plant in my area (central Texas). It is drought tolerant and has light blue blooms pretty much all year. It tolerates light shade and generally doesn't have many issues with disease or pests.

My problem with it is that it is not native to my area. It's not even native to the same continent! As a lesser complaint, it's planted so frequently that I'd rather have something different.

As an example, one great alternative would be Texas turks cap. I already have quite a bit of that, though, so I'm looking for other options.

Any suggestions?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] Crazytrixsta@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Turks cap is far larger than the plumbago.

Anise hyssop is native and will get you similar height. Gregg’s Mistflower. Salvia greggii. Rock Penstemon. Plenty more options.

Check out Texas Smartscape to help you out.

[–] PlantJam@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

The space is pretty flexible size wise. Turks cap, Gregg's mistflower, and Salvia greggii are all happily growing in the bed already and doing well. It doesn't look like anise hysop is native to my area, unfortunately. Thanks for the Texas Smartscape recommendation, their search tool is fantastic!