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Mountain Pinks of Texas

wantonamara Z8 CenTex

9 years ago

I just adore this plant. They have these surrealistically bundled bouquets. It pops up according to specifically timed rains. They do not make an appearance every year. They are not the easiest thing to naturalize, believe me, I have been trying. Their wants are specific. They love disturbed caliche limestone rubble with water occasionally flowing over it and they like to face west or NW mostly. All day sun or mostly all day brutal exposure There are some exceptions to this rule.I will collect some seed again this year.

This was one of Lady Bird's favorites also. I was out on the road waiting for her funeral procession down SH290 from Austin to Johnson City. We were right by a huge clump of mountain Pinks. We lined them with rocks in the shape of a big heart. When The limo came by , they honked at us, the window rolled down and the arms waves at us. her love of Mountain Pinks is known by the plant lovers of Central Texas.

Comments (13)

TexasRanger10
9 years ago
I got some of these to naturalize on my little bank but seeing them in their natural habitat is something else entirely. I love these plants. Lady Bird is one of my biggest heroes.

What is that big clumping grass closer to the trees?
wantonamara Z8 CenTex
Original Author
9 years ago
TxR, Do you get them every year? Have they returned reliably from they first blooming?
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TexasRanger10
9 years ago
Yes. They've successfully self sown on that same gravel slope where I planted the original seeds in the urban prairie here. They are just now starting to bloom so it looks like in zone 7 they come on a little later than yours in zone 8. I'll post a shot but its nothing like that bank you have. LBJ planted them on her runway in the gravel where it slopes so I believe they need that. Some that have germinated on ground here where the rain collects ended up rotting but I do have one blooming down by the street next to the curb where its lowest. The color reminds me of pink and light green candy mints.

Here are three shot in early June, they are the fuzzy plants in front of the blue cactus next to the liatris. I've got babies up for next year. Lady Bird would be proud, its not a gravel runway but its the closest I have.
wantonamara Z8 CenTex
Original Author
9 years ago
This success makes me so happy. What direction does this slope face?E,W, N,S?
TexasRanger10
9 years ago
South facing inferno, full day of blazing hot sun with gravel & concrete adding to the heat. I threw some seeds out back where its not so torrid and its half day sun in any area. A few came up but none made it to bloom stage.
TexasRanger10
9 years ago
Whats the large clumping grass? Is it muhly?
wantonamara Z8 CenTex
Original Author
9 years ago
I don't know. I wasn't focusing on it.
dbarron
9 years ago
I took a close up a week and a half or so ago...I thought they were sedums till I looked them up.
wantonamara Z8 CenTex
Original Author
9 years ago
dbarron; SO, they grow wild in Oklahoma too. Good to know.Is this in the Arbunkle mountains?Where did you find them in OK. Are we looking at limey soil or are Wichita mountain granitic soil?
dbarron
9 years ago
No no...I was in the area just south of Lake Travis west of Austin when I shot it;)
wantonamara Z8 CenTex
Original Author
9 years ago
OOOH , you were in my neck of the woods. Was this in Bee Caves , Lakeway area? Was it on Hamilton Pool road? LOL.
dbarron
9 years ago
Err yes (both), that one was on the way back from Hamilton Pool, first gas station toward Austin basically.

I saw the ones in Bee Caves area on way home also..
wantonamara Z8 CenTex
Original Author
9 years ago
Hill Country Market Is the convenience store I go to. . LOl. Next time wave. I think the hill I took the picture of was the next bank around the curve downhill from the market. Really close . Hamilton pool is my neighborhood "country club" I go swimming there at 5'oclock right before closing. I do bemoan that now that the lakes are non existent that the pool is SO crowded.

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