Well, welcome back to Oklahoma. I'm in OKC too... Southside! I don't have any tips, because I am pretty new to outside gardening myself, but I just wanted to say welcome.

M.,

Welcome home! I'm a native Texas myself, moving here after spending the first 39 years of my life in Fort Worth.

So, tell me what kind of plants you had in Texas, and what zone you were in there and I'll tell you what I brought from zone 8 Texas that has survived here (precious little!) and what I've substituted instead. Also, what county will you be moving to in 18 months and what kind of soil will you have? And, will you have a basement, heated garage or greenhouse where you can overwinter plants?

Dawn

Dawn Great!! I am from almost Waco - at the start of hill country. I used lots of Lantana, Dantura, Brugs, gingers, mist flowers, blackeyed susan vine, aroids or all shapes and sizes, palms, bananas, etc... Most I am told will be annuals here or house plants for the winter - I have some Iris and daylilies that I brought with me and little babies of a lot of the above - just knowing that they are going to be houseplants in winter... so far that means about 70 winter houseplants... and I thinned out a lot!

Tisha - Wonderful!! I am on SW 39th for now, but looking for a place a little better...

M...welcome! I moved back to the OKC area from Dallas just last fall after 17 yrs down south. Your iris and daylilies will be just fine (you'll notice the daylilies blooming now)...lantana ought to be fine, too, as my "mystery plant" topic shows.
I hope that your circumstances have brought you back to a place that will be a good chapter in your life!
Sharon

M.,

I think you'll be surprised at how many of the plants you love will survive the winters here if they are in well-drained soil and are well-mulched.

I grow all kinds of daturas and they either come back from the roots OR reseed, OR both. I overwinter my brugs indoors in pots, but some people have success with some of them overwintering in the ground here. Gingers, of course, have to overwinter indoors. Mistflowers overwinter in the ground for me in my sandy soil but not in my clay. Black-eyed Susan Vine reseeds like crazy....even in the gravel driveway. I collected and saved black-eyed susan vine seed the first year, and then realized there was no reason to bother because it reseeded all over the place. Susan is the expert on aroids and can answer your questions about them. I know she's grown them there in OKC. My common green colocasias come back every year, in both improved clay soil (GREATLY improved with lots of compost) and sandier clay-ey loam. I have some of the black-stemmed ones and black-leaved ones and they came back this year. (Last year was their first year.)

Palms probably have to overwinter indoors, unless it is the Washington fan palm--(I hope that's the right name). Some people overwinter Musa Bajoo bananas in the ground, with a heavy layer of mulch, and if in well-drained soil.

Irises and daylilies, of course, will overwinter here.

Dawn

Wonderful - I cannot wait to try my hand at winter here... and more can go inground than I dreamed of!! Reseeding is perfect - more to share. Cannot wait to really get started this fal with some shrubs and trees... I get to plant Lilacs and that will be well worth the trouble.

We are coming home after 12 years in Texas - and we are so ready.. Kept saying we would only be here a year, than just one more year, and they kept adding on and in the end it was a now or never thing.

So do we have a plant swap in the fall? I really want to get ready!

M, I grew up on SW 23rd, between Penn and Agnew. My mom and dad finally moved a bit further south a few years ago, and then Keith and I bought our place (actually on the same street as my parents) back in August.

I love the Southside... it's home to me. :-)

P.S. Try out Los Tacos on SW 89th and Penn. It's a Southside tradition!

Will try to make it there this weekend - thanks for the tip.

My wife grew up on SW 39th, right next to the highway there... really a nice place just the homes are soooo close together!

Good to meet people - what ever plants do great for you - please let me know!

I'm horrible with plant names, and we didn't plant any of the perennials in the backyard, but you are more than welcome to take a look at the pictures I've posted and maybe you'll know what everything is. LOL Everything back there does really well.

Here is a link that might be useful: Spring Post

Actually, Dawna is the real expert on both Aroids and bananas. I had a lot of the elephant ear type (colocasia and alocasia), but since gave them away. The only ones I have right now are Alocasia macrorhiza (upright EE). I do grow some of the hardy ones, like Arisaemas, Sauramatum, alums, and another little one that I don't remember it's name. It's a ground cover and gets those little spathe blooms on it that reseed. These are all hardy for me in OKC.

I have been told that brugs (some) can overwinter in the ground here in OKC. I don't that holds true for all cultivars, so you might want to look at the Brug forum. I think there is one. If not, try the Tropicals Forum. Daturas do well in the ground here. Mine just started blooming, Dawn!

Some lantanas, gingers, and bananas are hardy in the ground here as well. Wish Dawna would come in here (Wolflover). She grows lots of Aroids and Bananas. My lantana 'Miss Huff' is hardy in the ground here, and my butterfly ginger (hedychium) is as well. There are other cultivars of lantana and ginger that would be hardy here, too.

There may be some hardy palms, but I am not familiar with them at all. There is also a forum for those.

I like to push the zones, though. I've lost a few, but also gained a few. They always say that gladiolas are not hardy here, but I they multiply aggressively in my garden. Your mistflower (coniclinum or ageratum?) should be very hardy here. If not, they usually reseed prolifically. I grow Ageratum houstonianum and it is hardy here. It was a present from the birds - LOL!

You can definitely grow cannas here if you like the tropical look. They are beginning to discover that a lot of traditionally frost tender tropicals are much hardier than not. Check out the Aroid forum, too. It's a great one. I grow Rice Paper Plant (Tetrapanax) for it's humongous leaves, but it suckers a lot, so I'm always pulling out the suckers. But I like large-leaved plants.

Hostas will also grow well here and if you like the large-leaved tropical look - Hosta 'Sum and Substance' or Hosta 'Blue Angel' or Hosta 'Titanic' are beautiful.

Acanthus mollis is another one with tropical looking foliage (common name "Grecian Urn" plant). When the foliage starts getting ratty, I cut it back and it will resprout new foliage.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Susan

tisha - those look great.. so good ideas!

Susan - Wonderful - printed off your post! I grow the agertum, just love them too much I had to try and bring them with me you know? Rice Paper Plant - never heard of that one but will give it a look, and hosta - never had the shade but now I will!Will see what brugs can overwinter in the ground and hope I have some of the good ones.

Thank you Susan - wonderful information!

M, by highway do you mean I-44? From the middle of fourth grade until I finished ninth grade we lived on SW 36th between Independence and Portland. Although, I'm likely much older than you and your wife.

I sure do - not to far from Roachavelt ;-)

Both my wife and mother-in-law have been Titans there.

If you want a start of Rice Paper Plant, I can give you some. It suckers like crazy, but is easy to pull up. I love the humongous leaves on it. Sometimes they will get about 2' across. It is called RPP because it actually is the plant that the Chinese use to produce rice paper (the stems). It does flower, but too late for Oklahoma. It is a lovely foliage plant, though and can be grow in part shade.

Good luck with your Oklahoma gardening!

Susan

M, if you live close to Roosevelt, you're pretty close to me. I'm near SW 59th & May. We go to the Homeland on SW 44th most of the time for grocery shopping.

I didn't go to Roosevelt. I went to Columbus Elem. at SW 25th and Penn and then would have gone to Jackson on SW 25th for Jr High, if I hadn't started private school.

Susan that would be wonderful once we get more into the grove of things, fall maybe?

Thank you - Mitch

Roachavelt LOL never heard it called that! I went to Roosevelt, too! Freshman class of '69. My mother remarried the summer after my ninth grade year, and my new stepdad had a house in south Moore that we moved into while we waited on a new house on SW 85th to be built.

Tisha, you're just about a mile away from where my grandparents lived. They built a new house in 1952 near 59th & Penn. I spent a lot of time in that neighborhood.

Over by the Country Club? We have friends and family that live in that neigborhood. Those houses still amaze me. They're straight out of that time period, still. I love driving through that area.

My wife was there in the late 70s - she still loves that place.

Tisha, their house is in the section of smaller houses, just a block west of Penn. My grandmother was a widow and remarried in 1951. My mom and aunt were nearly grown, my mom married in 1952, so they didn't need a large house. The nicer houses were the ones west of Barnes and going west toward Country Club Drive.

I don't know if they ever fixed the drainage problem Barnes had when it rained, but I remember playing in knee-deep water down on Barnes during good summer rains.

There was one house on the corner of Barnes and 62nd that was really very different from the normal style of houses of the time. My granddad always told us it was a chicken coop. Being little kids, we believed him!

When my parents separated we moved into that little house with my grandparents. We lived with them from some time before I started kindergarten until nearly the end of my first grade year when Mom remarried.