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Texas Gardening

Only room for one sun plant

15 years ago

Nearly my entire yard is shade except for a 3 ft. by 3 ft. spot that is full sun. Since I only have room for one sun spot, I want something spectacular! I had Irene Lantana there, but frankly, I'm sick of it. It is 9 years old and seems to be declining. So, what should it be?

If it were evergreen that would be an added bonus but certainly not a necessity.

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Comments (5)

whoopdedeaux
15 years ago
Depending on the other types of plants in your garden, I'd consider a Mexican Bush Sage, Pride of Barbados, Texas Mountain Laurel, Texas Sage - Green Cloud or Silverado, Red Yucca, or a rose bush...but choose the rose carefully. Check the Antique Rose forum for suggestions from the experts.
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tesa001
15 years ago
oh i love pride of barbados! great choice

i noticed i'm seeing gaura "whirling butterflies" in
box stores these days, you might like that

what about a lady banks rose? might get too big?

tesa
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Comments (8)
Yeah, it has been trial and error. I have also contended with black flies, green/red/black aphids, soap burn, neem burn, huge fungus gnat infestations, and (currently) early blight. The fungus gnats came in on the potting soil I used (some kind of miracle grow organic?). I had to go nuclear on them- crumbled mosquito dunks in soil, sand on top, neem spray on sand surface and bottom of pot. I only see about 1-2 a week now (if that) so I've been removing the sand and filling up the pots with soil so the plants can use that space to grow roots. I know that the plants still get indirect light in the shade, but I also made a grow light in an effort to supplement them with additional light. I got an aluminum hooded light and put one 100 W equivalent 2700K and one 150W equivalent 6500K CFL (totaling about 4500 lumens) in it and every day I hang it above the plant I think needs a little extra help for about 12-16 hours. At any rate, here is the progress so far. All were planted in mid April except the Eary Girl, which was planted in late April but already had a mater on it. The yellow pear cherry just started ripening some tomatoes and has about 40 on it. I know most people think those are bland but the plant is so damn pretty. The red husky cherry has about 90-100 on it and has ripened maybe 10 so far. The early girl ripened one about 10-14 days ago, has 4 full-sized green ones and just recently put out another 5 after a hiatus. The patio tomato put out 22 tomatoes, ripened one early, then stopped. It is determinative and has been done flowering for quite a while. I've been eager to ripen the tomatoes and be done with it because now it's harboring disease, taking up space, and wasting copper spray. So I removed half of the tomatoes and tortured it by poking the roots with a stick to scare it into ripening (which made me feel like a bad person lol). It has started ripening again, and tonight my husband and I sliced and fried the green ones, which were delicious. So even if they never ripen I'll just feed myself fried green tomatoes. Which brings me to another thing I have been wondering about. Is it normal for tomato plants to ripen one or two tomatoes and then stop for awhile before ripening the other ones? I'm not sure if my plants have been like that because they've been battling disease or if I'm just being impatient. It's like they are teasing me.
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Sorry didn't mean to imply I was only discussing tomatoes. The issues I discussed above can apply any blooming/fruiting plant, not just tomatoes and not just tomatillos. I too grow both and while there are some cultural differences it isn't a drastic amount and many aspects of the 2 plants are the same - including the causes of blossom drop. Personally my tomatillo plants don't get scraggly or sad looking and they sure don't look like weeds and all my experiments with the various blossom drop sprays have supported what i said above. But then my climate and the effect it has on them is quite different from that in zone 10 (have no idea where the OP is located). They look different from tomato plants in ways but look and act just like them in others. As to the self-pollination issue, it is hotly and often debated and research from Purdue University has the best info on it. https://hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/mexican_husk_tomato.html Studies show that some varieties are readily self-pollinating while others are not. Some varieties require a wider range of cooler temps to self-pollinate, and some plants it seems will never produce fruit regardless of the growing conditions. So there are no absolutes about them. However 3 plants in one container (without knowing if it is an exceptionally large (ie.25 gallon) container is normally over-crowding. And as floral pointed out 1 large bushy plant with another small plant is often indicative of excess or uneven distribution of N in the container. That 2 holds true for any blooming/fruiting plant. Dave
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pjtexgirl
15 years ago
Lady banks get enormous! LOL! OMG ONE sun plant????
Geezzzzz.... Ok you had lantana which is flat.... UM... Small area real spectacular....Egads this is as hard as "if you could only have ONE plant".
Ok, I'm thinking vertical because your window is so small you want to maximize what you can do with it. If I only had one 3x3 square area of sun I'd but a giant *ss pillar rose that weeped nearly to the ground in a riot of repeating flowers and great smell. I would pick an old fashioned repeating rose that was durable and low maintenance. this is a standard rose ("rose tree") but it shows what a rose trained up a pole can do. I'd rap it around the pole(4x4 with supports all the way up) to get the rose to bloom better on a horizontal. Then I'd let it "weep" off the top like this rose standard. If not that, I'd bonsai a wisteria into a standard and have flowers cascading to the ground. I'd interplant it with something that bloomed all the time tho. Whatever it would be, it would definatly be the focal point of the garden! PJ

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:303097}}
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tesa001
15 years ago
pjtexgirl, your idea for a wheeping rose FANTASTIC!!

i knew lady banks might get too big, but it would be
several years, and maby with pruning??

anyway, love your ideas!!

tesa
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pjtexgirl
15 years ago
Thanks!
A Lady banks is the largest rose in the world. It's beauty with a single spring bloom comes from it's enormous weeping shape. It's evergreen and thornless but otherwise not all that. To hack it back to keep it small would ruin the whole "look" I think. There are smaller roses with bigger fragrant repeat blooms that would fit in a small space. The "Lady" is so big I'm not sure she'd pillar well. I think she'd need a pergola or a huge open space.
I have a Lady B that I've mixed with native maypop for continuous bloom. They are in area that can be dug up by the city to access the wires underground (10 X 120 ft easement) in my backyard. Anything I plant there is subject to being dug up. SO.... I put two freaking huge plants that are easy/cheap to replace that will grow rapidly right back! I want to wish them all the luck fighting a huge rose and an giant vine! LOL! If I had limited space I'd be pickier. My pergola has a Zephrine Dolprhin and an amercian wisteria. PJ
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