Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's beautiful, gorgeous, long growing season plants! But I do! :(

They grow well in my caliche soil. Not many volunteers, though.

Omar

Not even after all this rain. Is your caliche very white? or is it the duff that accrues on top of the caliche from the cedar trees. I am getting volunteers in the oak leaf mulch so it is caliche that has some duff on top of it. I love the word "duff". Are any of your plants in full sun? I am so hesitant of putting anything out in full sun when a northerner( Plant Delights Owner) says they are full sun plants. I have killed some expensive plants doing that.

Mara, yours sent to me last year, didn't make it through the winter apparently. And my exposure was well-drained southern against house...so I guess I can't grow them here.

Sigh.... I wonder why TX can in OKC... excessive drainage and less moisture? I can send some more in the spring if you want to try killing them again. Whats the adage of trying three times to kill a plant before giving up.

Yes, that's Tony's (Plant's Delight) adage and I usually follow it, but unless I see some more northern (besides our friend in OKC) successes, I probably won't.

Yes, she can grow anything.

Yes, and complains when things grow too good (lol), though I do understand.

Thanks for highlighting this one - being native only in south Texas, it's never made my list. Nice to learn it may be worth a try as far north as Dallas.

LOL @ Dbarron. good one. Does this constitute gossiping behinds someones back?

@ Bostedo, Plant delights grows it in 7a NC or something like that. Txranger grows it in OKC. If you get with me in the spring , I can send you some once they break ground.

Only in a good way, that she has such success it's troubling to her. (lol) That's a good problem to have, she'd probably admit. She'd be far less happy if everything were just struggling little snips on the ground.

Oh and PD is zone 7b or 8a. They can definitely grow things I can't.

That's nice that they self seed. Are you able to divide larger clumps of the lily? Mara, I would love to see your palafoxia when it blooms. All I have to look at now is dead leaves.

Mara, my caliche soil is white, white . However, I keep adding organic matter to my flowerbeds constantly. They are growing under an 8’ crape myrtle.

Omar

Omar, do you grow your passion vines in caliche too, or in something else? Does caliche qualify for staying on topic. I catch sooo much flack for that you know lol.

I add granite sand and compost to my caliche. I add granite sand and compost to everything. things might grow in caliche but it is how well do they grow. I have grasses that never get to the height that others get them to. I have been adding leaf mulch every year to beds and I am amazed how much deeper the soil is and what is responding to it. I get the nasty stuff from the recycle place in Austin if it looks and smells good. Sometimes it doesn't.

so, Omar, your echeandias get some shade but not a whole lot..

Jay, yes, my passifloras grow now in caliche. It took several attempts but they finally grew after a couple of years.

Mara, I have not seen Echeandias from other gardens so I can not compare their performance, but I would say mine look very healthy and happy growing in caliche. I would describe the shade they live under as “very light” shade.

Omar

The passifloras must be doing fine in the caliche if you are getting so many suckers. They must be tough plants. I can't grow them here at the north pole.

I have never gardened in zone 6, but I have read some passifloras grow in that zone. You can always overwinter it indoors. Some passifloras are worth the effort.

Omar

I did get one by mail order years ago and it bloomed, but in the following couple years all I got was suckers that didn't grow much and never flowered. If I should ever succede in murdering my evil Campsis radicans I'll celebrate it with a new passion vine and start the whole process all over again or I could use Barron's mow method, which probably would Not work on caliche, unless you can afford a bunch of new blades lol. That's a funny visual. Mara going ballistic with a lawn mower on the caliche. Better run for cover!

Me mow. Never ever. I don't believe in mowing. Chainsawing is another matter.

Texas? Chainsaws? That sounds familiar! Did cannibals really eat your children or was Texas Ranger2 making that up? :)

Despite Mara's suggestion she lives in a wilderness, no cannibals have been sighted in Texas for...oh? six months at least.

I do not watch hardly any movies so all those kind of references slide by me. My local downtown chainsaw repair shop was used in one of the Texas Cahainsaw massacres movies. It was a real weird place filled with odd people with chainsaws and thick fumes, long torn down and made into a multistory parking lot.

We all live in a wilderness! Yipee, my Native American seeds came in. Verbena bipinnatifida, Plantago rhodosperma, Gaillardia nuavis, Centauria americana and Ipomopsis rubra. They were sold out of the other pretty, yellow, annual Gaillardia. My Muhlenbergia capillaris seeds came in too. For inspiring me to be a more diligent seed collecter...thank you!

Mara, Thanks - I'll make a note to message you on the other side of winter.

Mara, what ever happened with the 3 plant sales you were thinking about attending???

I went to one plant swap . I did not go to any of them.

Sorry to barge in here. I have one of the Texas Lilly here in SC. It’s just in its second year, but doing well in my clay. Jay, did you ever think of planting a native yellow passion vine? Not the showy flowers, but really cute and does well as caterpillar food.

Iris, I was thinking that Gulf Frits don't make it up here. If I knew there was a butterfly that would use them I'd probably try them again. ...when and if I kill that trumpet vine. I bought a book on Texas wildflowers years ago after going there and it had a native Camellia that was rare. I can't remember the name in the book but I googled Texas native Camellia and Stuartia malacodendron comes up. I think it's the same as the one in the wildflower book. The Gaillardia I mentioned was G. aestivalis.

Iris S. thanks for barging in . it is good to hear that it does well in wet ( compared to where I am) clay. Do you get around 50" of rain where you are? I got 10" august to August before the drought ended with never ending rain. I have some red dense clay that gets hard western exposure. I am thinking now of moving some out into the grass of my field and see how it does in a situation that is more like how it grows naturally in South Texas coastal grasslands. It is a very flexible plant.

50 inches sounds about right. This has been the first time in years that it was spread out in a nice way. We usually have a drought August/ September. I was glad it survived the unusually cold winter last year. A bit worried since we will already be about 15 to 20 degrees below average next week.

Jay, Sorry I didn’t know they are not that far north yet. But a little bee would be nice, right? Anthemurgus passiflorae.

I guess all those hurricanes must have missed you. I thought the whole state got some of that. I remember the hurricanes coming in and we were usually stuck on the very edge of the dry side (like Harvy). I hear there is supposed to be a storm coming off the gulf that will be headed up your way next week so there's a chance that those crag lilies should be irrigated well shortly.

I am in the Upstate. Florence pretty much was right over us so most of the rain was to the East. Same with Michael. Just got about two inches of rain and some branches down. I thought this one would be trouble. It’s my husband’s name and he has giving me trouble for almost thirty years :)

We got 6" out of Harvey but it was spread over 3 days and we are on a hill top so not much hassle at all. guys to the northwest of us 5 miles got 1". Things can be very different not far away in a hurricane.

I missed this thread. I've been lazy about checking the forums because they've been so inactive.

The Craig Lilies bloomed this year (OKC) but we got that early freeze while they were still blooming so I didn't get seeds this year. They probably bloom too late to grow successfully further north even if they are hardy.

None of those seeds I sowed last year sprouted and there were tons of them, a whole bag full.

I have them planted in a sandy area that slopes downhill out back where you can't really see them unless you are back there because they are behind a large clump of 3 Heavy Metal Panicum grasses. They are planted in mostly shade. I think I will dig a couple up to put up front, they are really dainty when they bloom and they plants have multiplied nicely. I can imagine they would look fantastic growing up through grasses.

I'm glad I ran into this. I just decided I'm going out to dig out a few of the lilies for a new clump and while I'm at it I'm going to dig out some Phlox pillosa., several have strayed away from the main herd heading south and trying into and under a big cactus. Designated spot-- up front under the neighbors pin-oak by the driveway between those big roots which actually has good, diggable dark, loamy topsoil. I think both will do just fine under it. I let the coreopsis seed in thick on the opposite side and have them coming up as thick as grass. The roots create pie shaped areas. The Phlox gets just as thick-----and it smells so good from a long distance away.

I have found them easy to germinate in 4" well watered pots in spring. They do not germinate in a xeric situation. So I go out of my way and keep them moist and the seeds pop,.... every one of them.

Mara, the Echeandia you sent me is flourishing in my Birmingham, AL clay! It has multiplied into a clump and flowers profusely toward the end of our hot, dry summers. This year I saved a lot of seeds. Thank you so much!

Susan

Your welcome. Mine are blooming right now and we are in abnormal drought. 1/3" this last month

Mara, I found one of these on sale at an on-line nursery while placing last winter's order for some other things and used it to fill out the shipping. It appears to have done very well in an unshaded western exposure between a fence and pavement in our Dallas clay. Some critter took out the largest early flower stalks in September, but others are still blooming now.

You were cheating on me ...... LOL>