Hi, Janet
I live in the country but am a "City Girl", at heart. I love your Native Gardening! Considering the weather trend we are in right now and with no promise for improvement in the near future, we, who enjoy gardening, should be so wise. Why fight it? Go with the flow, and besides, with careful planning, Native Gardens are beautiful! I am slowly switching over to more and more Xeric planting.
The plants that never fail for me are: Perovskia, Gaillardia, Coneflowers, Liatris, Grasses, Cacti and Succulents. You are growing some plants that I want to try.
I agree with you on just letting the grass go dormant. Easier on the water bill, and I sincerely believe in leaving nature to it's own caretaking. It's been doing it since the beginning of time.........

Jeanie

Hi Jeanie! You know what I'm talking about though. Lets talk about some fun stuff, like perennials.

I talked to my sister last night and she cannot say enough good about how her Rudbeckias are doing. They will even take a lot of shade and go and go with no extra watering. She took out her entire yard last spring and is trying to fill lots of space on a big corner lot. Says these are a cast iron strong life saver, easy to fill a large area so they certainly do the trick and she gets lots of raves on them from passers by.

I was checking out Rudbeckia seeds last night. Sounds like your kind of flower, sort of resembles that favorite coneflower of yours. Except its yellow. Will the pallida take much shade? I have a shade situation that I had less than stellar results with this summer. Its full shade from June until late August. I need to re-think it.

It is surprising to me, but english thyme has been slowly taking over in a full shade area under a yaupon the last several years. I started with one plant in a 4" pot, and now it covers about 2 feet square. It has never been fertilized, and only some years have I watered it once or twice. I live on expansive clay, and the bed the thyne is in is raised a couple of inches from the surrounding areas. I may break down and water it tonight, but that will be the first time this year for supplemental watering. The flowers haven't bee much, but it is making a pretty green ground cover.

I'm not really surprised about the thyme, since I've found that creeping or wooly thyme can stand a terrific amount of abuse. Heat, low water, freezing and lack of any care don't appear to slow it down at all. It's a tiny thing and forms a very flat mat that seems to be suitable for a rock garden or naturalized area. The blossoms are not much bigger that the head of a push-pin, but it's a very friendly little thing in spite of that.

Pat

Merry, I hadn't thought of English Thyme at all. I have a couple plants in sun and could easily make cuttings to put in there. Had no idea these would take that much shade. I don't care about flowers, I am after continuing a certain look because for the most part, I don't like typical shade plants. I like tiny leaves and want something shrublike that looks wild. On second thought, I may just forgo the rooting and pick up a few plants, easy enough to do. Thanks for the idea. Taking over an area would be welcome.

I've never grown Thyme. I've only had one Rudbeckia, and it only lasted two years. I don't remember, but it must have been the short-lived "Black-eyed Susan", Hirta. The Fulgida, "Yellow" coneflower is a perennial that spreads by rhizomes and makes a bigger clump as time goes by. "Goldsturm" is a popular one. Very pretty.
The coneflower, Echinacea Pallida is the wild coneflower. Needs full sun and is drought tolerant, but likes SOME water. Blooms earlier than Echinacea, Purple Coneflower, which, also, needs full sun. Coneflowers would not like shade. As far as shade plants, the perennial Hostas, Ferns, Columbines, Astilbes, Toad Lilies, Violas are nice. I have absolutely NO shade where I live now, so been a while since I grew shade
plants. Of course, daylilies will take some shade, and there are repeat bloomers.

Jeanie

Jeanie, I think the common purple coneflowers can take quite a bit of shade but maybe not full? I grew purple ones years ago in this area but they were so dark they sort of disappeared and didn't have much impact. I had never even been aware of the Pallida coneflowers until I got on here and read what you'd said about them in another other post. They remind me of the one yellow one called Gray Headed Coneflower which is in the Ratibida family like the Mexican Hats except it likes a lot of water and the Hats are very arid. Is that the one you are talking about on the yellow coneflower? Are you going to plant that Desert Willow? No shade really? I think of that as lucky but I am fighting too much, thanks to my neighbors tall Triffids.

Merry has given me a given me an idea that is now growing. I have this problem one ft tall "step" of hacked out dirt (ugly) between my property and the house next door I keep weeded running about 120 feet down the whole west side that is about 2 ft wide on top. Really hideous with old fence posts. Truly bad. Then, theres his "yard" as a backdrop.

I kept thinking to put grasses (the only thing I have tried that doesn't lean away toward the east) in front to hide it but now I am considering English Thyme and Creeping Rosemary to cover it. I hadn't even considered herbs because of the shade and the way anything else would lean away from his tall trees. I have tried so many different things in this long area and it all leans unattractively. I am now thinking these would probably grow over the ugly step part and cover this mess so I don't need so much tall stuff growing in front to completely block it. Its morning sun in parts and a lot more shade in other parts and I think that would actually work! I have been mulling over this problem all summer and a lightbulb went off with the English Thyme taking shade. I know the Rosemary will but had never thought of it either.

Hi, Janet
Hey. You just might have a solution for your shade, ugly area. I wouldn't have thought of Herbs, either.
It surprises me to hear you say you grew Echinacea Purpurea in shade. Did it bloom very much? Live and Learn. That's what this forum is about!
Yes. I will be planting a Desert Willow on the North side of my Island bed, but will wait until I can find a decent looking one and had rather wait for cooler temps. I will just have to look at that ugly crater for a while. Around
it will be Xeric plants, as it doesn't like a lot of water. I think it will fit right in with my striving for a SW look. It is still 100 degrees here at almost
10:00 O'Clock in the evening. The plants that NORMALLY thrive here,
even in our long, hot Summers are really struggling this year. We may
ALL be growing Yuccas and rocks, before it's over. HA

Jeanie

Jeanie,

Came in to cool off from watering. Whew! I grew a Desert Willow from a seed I got at Will Rogers Park one year. It came up easy and grew fast. You have to stake it to train it into a tree. Mine was white blooming and stingy at that. I didn't much like that, I wanted pink. It took about 3 years to get taller than me. There are some new varieties, TLC has about 3 sizes of one that is gorgeous and smelled very strong, I think its the same kind HCG carries. Obviously some improved type. It wasn't cheap but I don't think I need to tell YOU that. I sort of expect they have hit Home Depot or if not, they will soon. If I ever plant another, it will be one of these.

Yea, that purple coneflower bloomed but it never got bushy or anything. It did bloom though. I have that ugly line of ugliness to look at while you are looking at your crater. I already went out and lifted up all around my creeping rosemary looking to see how it roots and if I can start stealing from it. Its a good sized one hidden behind a large cactus where you can't see it anyway. I think I can get quite a few freebies off of it.

Janet,
I probably can't afford TLC's DW. I was thinking in terms of medium size at a modest price. They grow fast, so I don't have to have "instant" tree. HD has a few left but they aren't looking too great, so thought I would hold off to see if they get in any this Fall or Spring. Besides, I've never planted a tree in the heat of Summer. No sense starting out with 10 strikes against you! Your Rosemary will most likely yield several "starts" for your less-than-attractive strip. Think your grass will come in today? Hope so,
so you won't have to wait til next week for arrival. Have you "tracked" delivery?

Jeanie

We're planning to replace our bermuda/weed front lawn with buffalograss. We were going to do it this spring/summer but that obviously didn't happen. I got a Brecks Wholesale catalog in the mail the other day and now I want to put short bulbs in the lawn under the grass. It was easy to convince DH- Earlier spring greenup!

The plants I have around the edge of the backyard are struggling/dead. No more butterfly bush. No more clematis. The Brown Turkey fig and volunteer Maple tree are not happy. The plants in the flowerbeds are happier because it's easier to irrigate- I have soaker hoses for them. The hicks yew is probably not going to make it though. All the salvias look pretty good. Cosmos are happy but not setting seed. Zinnias are happy. Lantanas are tiny but happy as long as I water.

I am not a city person or even a small town person. Maybe Exburb or that "urban interface" outside the exburb will describe me.r 30 miles from Austin, no city water. AND I am about 500 miles and a zone and a half warmer than you so take what I say with a grain of salt.I am in Central texas and I do not water because I am trying to live off of nion existant rain water. I am a good person to say that things are tough or not tough because I love to push that side of the envelope.
As for what is working in my perennials, I have Artemisia valery finnnis planted around my Blue tuscan rosemary and it is an amazing combination and is so xeric.. Most of my salvias have croaked or are sleeping. I just collected a handful of S. lindheimerthat was growing i wild under a tree while I was picking up trash in the "neighborhood". I love my natives, but most are hibernating this year . It looks like January out there. I grow Echenacia augustifolia. I would love some of the E. palida seeds. If any of you have it . I have an extensive native seed list and would love to trade. I grow craig lily (Echeandia texensis). they seem to be handling the weather but in a diminished way. Hey that's better than nothing! My Desert willow is unaffected. It is a darkly colored one. Maybe a "Bubba" variety.

I am a country boy at heart, but am married to a city girl, so I have a typical sized subdivision sized lot. Over the past 10 years, I have slowly expanded the garden, and intend to do so again this fall. Right now, I grow any ornamental that attracts bees, butterflies or hummers. I also have a 30' x 20' veggie garden. The drought this year has convinced me to finish the installation of an automatic irrigation system for all my flower and veggie beds. James

Tiger, There is a very nice large lawn of buffalo grass up the street from me. They used sod. Probably pretty expensive. Its all male plants. I asked for some runners and he said take all you want and they rooted easily. I know another guy that tried seed. Its not easy to get a solid covering that way from what he said. I've read that a mix of blue grama and buffalo is good but this one lawn up the street is just so pretty that its worth whatever they paid. Right now its dormant and just looks natural that way because it looks good green or not.

Mara, I see that same Rosemary growing around here. Its listed as zone 8 but does fine here in 7. There are a couple of very large ones close by where I walk. I'd trade you some Indian Ricegrass seeds for a few bubba seeds. The Nolina microcarpa is already 2" tall on week 2. Every seed germinated in about one week. The Broom Dalea came up in 4 days. You want?

I think I will add some Rosemary officianalis to the English Thyme and creeping Rosemary on the ugly strip. There is one up the street doing well under too many trees. Probably only gets about 3 hours sun in late afternoon. This area I'm trying to make into something is very dry and high, more clay than loam.

James, check out Standing Cypress. Its easy from seed and the hummers love it. Takes dry soil well. Tall plants that don't need much horizontal space. naturalizes well.

CG,If it makes seed I will pul some for you. Things flower but don't seem to be making seed this drought. I forgot about the tenderness of rosemary. There are some that are more cold hardy. They and dark green agaves look great with the artimesia.

There is a package available from Native American seed that standing Cypress (ipomopsis rubra) comes in red and yellow orange that is real pretty

I think all I am asking out of my garden this year is to survive.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ipomopsis rubra