Plant Showcase

Almond Verbena

Almond Verbena

Almond Verbena

This plant hails from Argentina and is one of the most fragrant plants you can grow in Texas. When it’s in full bloom, you can often smell them from 100 feet off. It attracts butterflies, bees and other desirable insects. Grows in full sun or part shade, with moderate water needs. They will freeze back during cold snaps but grows up to 6 feet in one season so it won’t stay small for long. These plants are quite rare but we stock and sell them for your enjoyment.

Black Berries growing in our forest garden.

Black Berries growing in our forest garden.

Blackberries

These bushes grow on every continent except Australia and Antarctica. They’ve been gathered from the wild for food and parts of plants used for medicinal value as far back as the Romans in Europe and Native Americans on the American continents. Back then harvesting was a chore of finding a bush with ripe berries and avoiding getting pricked by a profusion of thorns as you plucked the berries off. Now we have thornless varieties with superior flavor and yield that grow well in the Hill Country so you can plant them close to your house and reap the benefits. A favorite of children, you can tell they’ve been enjoying them when they come home with purple tongues. We offer three thornless varieties for you to choose from, all of which do well in our climate and soils.

Elderberries

Elderberries

Elderberries:

This is a native plant widely utilized for making medicine. The berries can be turned into a syrup or tincture for general immune system boosting or added directly to your plate for added nutrients, although they don’t have much flavor they do add allot of color and benefit. These berries are abundantly available, even from young berry bushes, in the early to mid summer. Elderberries are tolerant of rocky, poor soil and have low water needs once established. They grow fast and can reach 6 X 6 or larger in about 2 years. Prune to the shape you like. If all that isn’t enough to convince you, their also easily propagated and great for wild life.

Passionflower blossom. Dose well in the Texas heat, covering a fence and genning up an area in a hurry. Besides the delightful flowers, the fruit that follows has an edible seed membrane.

Passionflower blossom. Dose well in the Texas heat, covering a fence and genning up an area in a hurry. Besides the delightful flowers, the fruit that follows has an edible seed membrane.

Passion Flower, Passiflora Incarnata:

One of the best screen plants we have, this particular passion flower has grown 12 ft from spring to fall in poor soil, full sun with minimal supplemental watering. It covers the fence quickly providing a visual screen, beautiful flowers and edible fruit. This plant will also spread by root runners and self propagate providing more plants to be dug up or left alone to produce more vines, flowers and fruit. It dies back in the winter providing organic matter and mulch, sprouting up again in the early spring.

Loquat

Loquat

Loquat:

Loquats are very well adapted for the Central Texas area, they can grow through the hottest parts of summer producing an abundance of evergreen, tropical looking foliage. Often used for landscaping due to their beauty and resilience many people don’t even know that the yellow fruits ripening in early spring are edible and delicious. We have some varieties cultivated for superior fruit production in the pipeline that will be available soon. One thing to take into consideration, fruit is set in the fall and can be frozen off if we have a hard winter thus plants that are sheltered from north winds or planted close to passive heat sources like walls are more likely to produce fruit consistently.

Canna Indicta or Indian Shot is often used as an ornamental and it also produces edible tubers.

Canna Indicta or Indian Shot is often used as an ornamental and it also produces edible tubers.

Indian Shot:

This plant adds a tropical feel to the landscape and although it likes to have plenty of water it can do very well in Texas once established. The deep red, purple and greens that these large smooth leaves produce are really enjoyable and the leaves can be used like banana tree leaves to serve food on and brighten up the table. The roots are also an edible tuber. You can dig them up and take a portion of the tubers to eat, then replant a few for re-growth or simply divide them to create more Indian Shot plants next year. They die back in the winter, adding there leaf mass to the ground creating a quickly decomposing mulch that adds a significant amount of organic matter to the soil.

Dwarf Pomegranite trees.

Dwarf Pomegranite trees.

Pomegranates:

This desert fruit tree performs well in Texas, growing quickly and producing fruit in a short amount of time. We have a wide selection of varieties ranging from dwarf trees that are very compact and ornamental, easily grown in containers that still produce miniature edible fruits to varieties specially bread for cold hardiness and desirable fruit production. The stunning red or purple flowers cover the tree in spring and for some varieties last through the whole summer. They grow like large bushes although they can be pruned into single trunk trees, so they’re well suited to creating visual screens.

Arizona Cypress, evergreen, drought & heat tolerant, fast growth.

Arizona Cypress, evergreen, drought & heat tolerant, fast growth.

Arizona Cypress, Hesperocyparis arizonica – Size: 30-45ft :

One of the best screen & wind break trees we offer, the Arizona Cypress take well to the Texas Hill Country! It’s innate drought tolerance, ability to withstand the summer sun and fast growth in poor soils all serve it well in our; sometimes harsh, but beautiful land scape. With a bluish hue to the foliage and very enjoyable fresh fragrance when brushed by, these trees are nice to have around. Some folks have taken to buying an Arizona Cypress and keeping them potted in the house for Christmas, then planting them to celebrate the holidays passing. The wood they produce is durable and often used for fence posts or other exposed building projects, as the pine oils will help prevent decay.

SORREL has been finding its way into the human diet for thousands of years. The plant originates from highland regions in what is now France and surrounding European countries. Sorrel makes a tasty addition to soups, sandwiches, and salads. It is also used in many other foods, including reindeer milk. (Yeah, yeah, we know — central Texas isn’t exactly awash in fresh reindeer milk. We just thought it would be a great way to let you know just how versatile sorrel really is.) Read more about sorrel.

 

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