Welcome to Texas Joe!!!! LOL.. You might as well get use to the spider webs... They love it here.. I am in Millsap which is quite a ways from you.. The peaches we grow are Harvester.. Great flavor and a good producer..No worries on the weather just the grasshopper..LOL (for us anyway...)I think you will find tons of Narcissus bulbs that will work beautiful for you.. Your gonna get some cold weather... Oh and Congrats on your new home!!
Have a Very Blessed Day!!!
Chena

Joe,

A VERY valuable source of information is Texas A&M's site (people will refer to it as TAMU). Also, check out Texas Superstars.

Folks here are VERY generous and helpful. Opinioins aplenty!!

Have a good time!!

J.D.

Here is a link that might be useful: Texas Superstars

Welcome to Texas and the Texas GW Forum!

Gardening here might seem a challenge here compared to some other parts of the country. However, there are several good
books available about native and adapted plants that love our climate and soil.

Perennial Gardens for Texas by Julie Ryand and Native Texas Plants by Sally Wasowski are two that come to mind.

Rainbow Gardens and Antique Rose Emporium sell a lot of native and adapted plants as well as come other nurseries. Lack of rain and water restrictions more than lack of good plants is the bigger challenge.

But we human beings do enjoy a challenge, don't we?

Welcome Joe, not too far from you are acres and acres of peach orchards in Fredricksburg and Stonewall. Probaly won't be too hard to find out what they grow
and in between
Again, welcome
jolana

Hi Joe, If I can make the transition and love it here in the hill country from living and growing in Hawaii where you CAN'T grow a peach for love or money you can make the transition too. As to peaches around 350 -450 chill hours should be about right for Devine. Several good ones for that chill period such as Sam Houston, Rio Grande, probably a few others from Florida will work. Yes going from acid to alkaline is a shock to the ol growing systems but there are all kind of cool plants that will thrive or survive here depending on your definition of happy. At least it won't feel quite as humid and hot for you as it was for me my first summer 11 years ago. I thought I was going to melt. Ask questions and make yourself at home here on this forum and in your new home in Devine. Stop by anytime for a friendly lil chat.
Happy Growing David

Oh yeah, the powdery mildew...my poison of choice is 1/2 C lowfat or skim milk per gallon of water sprayed on in the evening or very early morning. You don't want the milk to cook.

and welcome to Texas

Pam

Thank you all for your warm welcomes! I am really looking forward to getting my hands dirty. With actual dirt - not Florida sand...lol

David - I felt the same way when I made the move from Indiana to FL back in '01! And, unbeknownst to me at the time, many of the fruit trees I had grown in IN would not survive in my part of FL (Apples, peaches, anything non-tropical...)because of the lack of chill time. So I guess I'm just trying to get back a little bit of what I was used to growing up. I've seen enough palms to last me forever. Cycads I like, but Palms just aren't my thing.

Pam - Thanks for the info! I had never heard of that formula for PM. Much more convenient for me than the baking soda/oil/soap spray.

Chena - I covet the Pampas grass on your profile page! It's beautiful, but I've always had a soft spot for it....lol

Once again, thank you guys for the welcome and advice!

--Joe

WELCOME! I'm from the other coast. Los Angeles desert(Mojave). This link helped me get a really great base for my garden with size,water needs,lighting,size and evergreen/decidious rating.

Here is a link that might be useful: TX smartscape

Welcome Joe!! Believe it or not, I actually KNOW where Devine is! LOL I grew up in San Antonio and have lots of family near Somerset. Both peaches and apples are grown in the Hill Country, so I bet you can grow them, too. Also, if you dig down too deep in your yard, you'll run into limestone. Oh joy!!

Joe, I've just moved back to Texas after living in Montana for several years. But Texas is home, and I'll miss the cool summers up North but won't miss the WINTERS. Are you near San Antonio? There is a nursery called Shades of Green and Bob Webster is the owner- they give terrific advice and have quality plants. Bob has a radio show if you catch San Antonio stations. He is conservative about using what the organic crowd call "chemicals," but not an extremist. People down here tend to be passionate about the organic/chemical divide, and those terms mean different things to different people. The chemical people think the organic side eat nothing but raw carrots and broccoli and wear only unbleached cotton and never cut their hair, and the organics think the others want to poison every living thing on the planet and won't be satisfied until all life, plant and animal, is killed off with the most toxic of concoctions. So don't be surprised if you run into either type.
Catamount

Bill Schneider in Devine that grows avacados. If he can grow them there, I bet he would be a good source of growing info.

Bill Schneider
E-mail Address:
brs@devtex.net

Hi, Joe, welcome to Texas and the Texas Gardening Forum. I'm in north Texas, so I don't know the answer to most of your questions, but I do know that there are lots of spiders in Texas. You probably already know that spiders are beneficial, but it's still annoying to run into a spider web. I hate that! My guess is that the house you moved into wasn't treated with poisons. Maybe it was vacant for a while, or the people that lived there before you just didn't treat it. I like spiders, but I understand that it can be a bit overwhelming to have lots of them if you're not used to it. I'd of thought Florida would have lots of spiders. You should probably keep your eyes out for scorpions and snakes, too. But, again, I'd imagine you'd be used to lots of creepy crawlies in Florida. I've heard stories about the roaches they grow there.

There are wonderful plants that grow in alkaline soil. One of my favorites is Texas Mountain Laurel. They're very common where you live, cause I believe they're native. Just wait unti early next spring and you'll find out why they're one of my favorites, and lots of other people's as well. Although, I've heard that y'all down in the Hill Country might be a bit tired of them.

Well, again, welcome to the forum and to Texas, and good luck with your 12 steps!

Sally

Hi and Welcome!

I grew up in Southeast Texas, which I've often thought of as similar to parts of Florida. We had acid soil, hydrangeas, magnolias, azaleas, green green GREEN grass (no watering or fertilizing necessary) and huge trees. Those, and the food, are the things I miss the most. I left my home town in 1994 and have not been back. I think it took me about 12 years to finally adjust to things not being green and lush. Although, if I went back often, I think it would take longer. I hope your 12 step program does not take you 12 years, like it did me!

On the flip side, there are many things to grow here that we couldn't down there very well. My favorite, is herbs. Almost any kind of herb does well in my area and yours. If you like to cook or like food and medicinal history, then herbs are for you. Also, so many other flowers like roses, etc., that had a hard time with diseases, do really well here. I hope you can find some things that you love or always wanted, that will do well here.

I dont know anything about peaches, sorry. Jolana is right about peach country and Fredericksburg! I bet they would help you.

My vet has plenty of daffodils that grow around the animal hospital, so I would assume some kinds of narcissus would do well, but I'm not familiar with varieties.

Again, welcome! And, I sympathize with what you are dealing with. LOL, but not at you. Such a different situation!!!

Hey, Joe, like Sally, I am in North Texas, and it is an entirely different growing season for us. We have more days of prolonged cold than you, therefore many of our plants have to be in containers and overwintered inside. You sound like a true gardener, so I'll bet it won't be long until growing things here seems natural to you. Stay tuned to this forum, so many good people with good advice.
Welcome to the Lone Star State!!!!!

Don't have anything to add except Welcome Joe!

Catamount - I am definitely going to check out that nursery, but I'll have to leave the credit cards at home. Every time I go to a garden center, it goes something like this: "I'm just getting 1 thing. That's right, just one. Just....oooohhh, preeeetty......." and then I have to refinance my house.

Sally - I'm pretty sure my house hasn't been treated, but I think I know what the problem is now. There's a creek (read:ditch) behind my house with standing water. Good for mosquitoes, bad for me. Anyway, it's also a pretty wooded area, so the spiders have a virtually unending food supply. Heck, I wouldn't leave either...lol We had spiders in FL, but they were generally bigger, meaner, but scarcer than the ones out here. I can deal with them. So long as they don't get together and throw me out. Oh, and you're right about the FL roaches - you could use them in place of roller skates. LOL, but Floridians are in denial - "Those aren't roaches, they're palmetto bugs." And I'm Judy Garland.

Trsinc - Love cooking, and love herbs, but in FL, they generally turned to mush in summer, except my Rosemary, which is still in bloom as we speak. But I have to say that my fave is thyme.

I'm no stranger to container gardening, but at the moment I'm dealing with a plant match-up faux-pas I made a year and a half ago. I have an asparagus fern that is currently consuming my plumbago. There is one long branch with blue blossoms at the end sticking up out of the massacre as if to say "help me!"

Thanks to everyone for your warm welcomes!

--Joe

Hi Joe! Go to Google and type in "garden spider"

Likely, and hopefully, that is the spider who is spinning in front of your porch. They can be HUGE and scary at first, but they are not harmful to you - only to tons of insects. The way I deal with spiders is to repeatedly pull their webs down where I walk. They seem to get the message pretty quickly and put them elswhere. Every spring I walk with my arm out and up to catch the webs. That is after a face full a time or two.

Joe, you're from Florida. Isn't it true that asparagus Sprengeri has naturalized there and there are ditches and fields full of it? It's one of the toughest plants I know of. My mother loved it, and I helped her plant a whole bed of it near Dallas about 20 or more years ago. The tops turned to white ghosts in the winter, but in the spring it came back except for one year when it got to -4 degrees.
Catamount

Catamount - yes, that's true. It has taken over and killed shrubs and foundation plantings too in several parts of FL, but it wasn't really present in Fort Pierce, so I had no clue...lol The plants I got I separated from a hanging basket my mom had, and the parent plant was healthy - but not rabid. I swear the stuff has teeth...lol

prairiepaintbrush - That's one of them I've encountered here, but most are considerably smaller. I'm not necessarily afraid of them - just annoyed by the constant web-in-the-face every morning...lol

--Joe

Welcome, Joe! I'm about 6 hours north of you - north of Dallas, but have visited the San Antonio area several times. There are some good gardening links from other posters that will be very helpful to you. As far as the spiders, consider them friends since they will hopefully capture lots of mosquitoes in their webs. ;-) I've walked through my share of spider webs and it isn't fun, but don't get too upset since they're beneficial. I saw a nice size wolf spider making its way across my backyard this afternoon. Hopefully our dog didn't step on it and it made it safely to my landscape border. Right now I'm listening to our toad (thought it was a frog at first) who is sitting on our waterfall rock singing away trying to lure in a female toad. That's another beneficial critter in my yard. You will eventually find lizards around too, but I'm sure you had your share of those in Florida. Anyway, welcome to the Texas Gardening forum. We're all a friendly bunch of folks here who will be happy to answer your gardening questions and maybe you'll help us with some of our questions too.

Welll as you can see already, this is the best place for fun, entertainment, and advice.
WELCOME to Texas!!
I've been here all my life but only recently in the past 7 years or so have attempted gardening..and am still learing from the great, friendly and garden smart people you will find here on this forum.
I have no advice to give except if you need, want or give advice, need, want or give friendship, this is the place for you!
Dena

Okay Joe, I thought about it, and I'm ready to tell you my Spider story.

We used to keep a spider stick on the porch. When the dog was walked, that was the first person in the yard each morning, and it was always me. I'd take the stick and swirl it in front of me as we walked. This went on for a few years.

Then one Spring (don't need the stick in the winter), I noticed there weren't any spiders to swirl. I wondered what was up, but was happy with my discovery.

One weekend morning the DH decided to walk with me. I was chattering away and he was walking behind me - getting face after faceful of spiderwebs! Those tricky texas spiders had taken stock of their losses from the spider stick, and raised their webs to 5'4"! Me, being 5'3" did not even know they were there.

So the moral is, train your spiders Joe.

Welcome

I love that story, txgardenlady !

Welcome, Joe! I've heard horror stories about those banana spiders in Florida. I know spiders are beneficial, but they're about the scariest thing on earth to me. I can handle snakes, rodents, rabid dogs, whatever, but put a spider in front of me and I'm outta there. I use txgardenlady's method of stick-swirling. I'm sure my little morning march looks curious to the neighbors, but it's not as bad as the heebie-jeebie dance I do when I actually get a web in the face, running full-speed in crooked circles, slapping myself in the head. Yeah, I choose the stick method. ;-)

I think you'll find it's the Texans themselves that make this the best place to live in the world. Welcome!

LOLOL! Txgardenlady, that is too funny, well except maybe to your DH....I've been doing what you did, though, and with any luck, the spiders will raise their webs up above my 6'2" lol

Bo - Those blasted banana spiders tried to make a home in one of our cupboards back in FL. So, I started leaving a large pickle jar open in there, and they would fall in - but they couldn't get out. I let them loose in a field across the road from our house.

And you're absolutely right. Everyone I've met since I moved has been great. There's so much more hospitality and chivalry and just kindness here than in FL.

--Joe

Well, most of our spiders are nice, eat mosquitos and such. We do have the Black Widow and the Brown Recluse tho, and they are nothing to mess with. I don't know that the Brown Recluse makes a web like the other spiders, I have only found them in my linen closets. And they like to get in your shoes. Dump the contents of the shoes before you put them on.

We leave our wasps and mud daubbers alone here, as the wasps deal with the web worms and army worms very handily, and the mud daubbers deal with the bad spiders. Heros in my opinion.

I have a pretty good list of narcissis you can grow, if you are interested.

Welcome to Texas. We hope you will love it like we do.

Janie

Janie,

I am definitely interested and would appreciate that list. I am all ears...uhh...eyes.....lol

--Joe