Elegant & civilized is right, La. I think Rev Pemberton had a keen eye for that sort of thing. A brilliant hybridizer. I'm so happy to have this one growing in my garden. jb, to my eyes, it's a very, very pale yellow at times. At other times, it's more of a creamy white. At this moment, my specimen has multi-colored blooms on it. The newly opened ones almost solid creamy white, while the mature blooms are creamy white with beautiful crimson touches on the outer petals. My wife rarely comments about the plants in the garden, but just this morning she was uncharacteristically all over Mrs Dudley Cross. She singled it out over all the others. blackcatgirl, when your Nur Mahal gets a little older, and those baby smooth canes begin to gracefully arch over, with those bold blooms, you are really going to like her. I guarantee it. I am glad to hear you appreciate Gruss like I do. There are so many characteristics I admire about that rose. Only 15" of rain so far this year in Austin? Wow ... I guess I shouldn't complain. There are many sculptural looking native Live Oaks in your area. I hope they are doing okay during such a drought. Hi, Mari. My Reine des Violettes has been napping recently. But she does have one plump bud that is getting close to opening. I'm wondering if that will be the last one from her this year. Randy

First one -- not enough info. Best guess for the second pic is w/poaky -- black oak. Very dark-green/shiny leaf-tops. Pic of the trunk bark might help. This post was edited by beng on Thu, May 22, 14 at 10:20

There are a lot of xeric Mexican sages you can plant, including Salvia melissodora and S. keerli, which will draw your butterflies and other insect wings (bumblebees, even wasps). I'd recommend any of the 3 or 4 available forms of Salvia regla, and many of the S. microphylla and S. greggii forms and hybrids (this includes x jamensis). I'd also explore their relatives like S. chamaedryoides, muelleri, lycioides (especially greggii hybrids), and coahuilensis. You must have fire ants. Dou you also have pine voles? If not, there are a bunch of tuberous sages that should work, including many of the guaraniticas, involucratas (including puberulas) Try Salvia disjuncta Strybing form, S. reptans, west Texas form, S. roemeriana, S. penstemonoides, and many of the S. leucanthas and S. mexicanas. S. vanhouttei forms like Dancing Flames are probably not hardy, but are good bloomers. The broad-leafed ones should go into the shady areas. If you have any dampish spots there (relatively speaking), there are a few others like S. miniata and the S. blepharophyllas.

This is a new reply to an old post, but there are native live oaks in the area roughly between Ft. Worth, Abilene, and Wichita Falls, Texas that should work beautifully in your area. For some reason, nobody has developed commercial cultivars from this area. Live oaks, especially along the northern margin of their range, can vary in their characteristics. The ideal would be one with dense foliage that stays dark green all winter on a non-stoloniferous tree that branches With strong crotch angles. For commercial growers, it would probably require two trips to western North Texas—one in February/March to identify trees with the right characteristics, and once again in September/October to collect acorns. Maybe ten years of field trials would be in order after that. Of course this would be more of a long-range project than collecting an annual or perennial, but it could fundamentally change the landscape in Tennessee, Kentucky, and the Eastern Seaboard up to Philadelphia or maybe New York.