High Plains Gardening

Article Category:

Welcome to High Plains Gardening, the free, non-commercial, gardening information website for the Texas High Plains region and surrounding area!

The purpose of this website is to promote a culture of gardening within the Texas High Plains Region by offering information on an easy and successful way to garden. My hope is that many more people will enjoy gardening, and gardening success, in the Texas Panhandle.

My Vision — Gateway to Southwest Gardens

I have several goals, or visions, for the Texas High Plains region. I envision:

The Texas High Plains region will be known as “Gateway to Southwest Gardens”;
Area nurseries will stock and sell a huge selection of low-water use plants suitable for our area;
Area nurseries will promote and sell a wide range of organic gardening supplies; and
TV gardening programs that focus on and highlight area gardens, as well as being informational about southwest gardening, will be broadcast locally.

Establishing and creating this website is just one of the activities I do to draw closer to my vision for our area. I believe all four of my goals are attainable. Read through the rest of the website and give it a try. HighPlainsGardening.com is filled with information that will help you create gardens that are:

Featured Photography

Water Lilies (Nymphaea) and Lotus (Nelumbo) plants and flowers are featured. Water lilies, or waterlilies (either is correct) are sometimes referred to as lotuses, as the ancient Egyptians called the Nile water lilies. Notice the variety in flower colors and leaf or pad shape and color. There are many hybrids and cultivars within the two genera. The photos were taken at the Denver Botanical Gardens, Missouri Botanical Gardens, Longwood Gardens, and our own Amarillo Botanical Gardens, as well as two photos in native settings (Colorado and Wisconsin).

Native white flowering water lily, Nymphaea odorata

A giant tropical water lily, Santa Cruz water lily, Victoria cruziana, native to Argentina and Bolivia

Victoria 'Longwood Hybrid Water-Platter'

Victoria 'Longwood Hybrid Water-Platter', opens its flowers at night

Prickly Water Lily, Euryale ferox, note its flower in center. Tropical, native to Southeastern Asia and S. India

Rocky Mtn. Pond Lily, Nuphar lutea ssp polysepala

One of the Earth's most beautiful flowers

Water lily in September, near the end of its season

Light can have an enchanting effect on water lilies

Monet's waterlily, center of a tryptich, this one at the St. Louis Museum of Art.

Featured Plants

Check out my top plants for the season

Salvia greggii 'Furman's Red'

If I had to pick my favorite plant, this is it. Long blooming and drought tolerant with only minimal maintenance of late winter cutting back, and maybe a bloom pick-me-up deadheading at mid summer. It will also re seed some so you’ll have more of them the next year. It’s fragrance is light and pleasantly of sage. Salvia greggiis are native to Texas in the Kerrville area. It is my favorite, but not the absolutely perfect plant. The stems are quite brittle and very easily break or snap off, even when you’re carefully weeding around it.

View Full Plant Profile

Ratibida columnifera

You can't have just one. As soon as you plant one, you'll have a drift, then a sweep, then a field if you have the space. But I still don't consider the prairie coneflower to be invasive, merely pleasant. Next to the Indian Blanket, the Mexican Hat shouts Southwest prairies. And its a tough hombre. If your stand becomes too dense or too much, just weed some out. They're adaptable to most native soils and will thrive on available or once a month supplementation. Coneflowers bloom yellow, reddish or brown late spring into fall and make an attractive display when mixed.

View Full Plant Profile

Monarda didyma

An American native requiring medium to high water, it is a prolific grower, an old fashion pass-along plant. Perfect for a mixed border or at the edge of the vegetable garden to attract bees. The variety shown is most likely 'Violet Queen', although I'm unsure. However, it is not the common scarlet bee balm or red bergamot, that also grows well here. Blooms throught the summer and is an attractive addition.

View Full Plant Profile

Mirabilia multiflora

Rounded mounds of green leaves on multi-forked stems put forth multitudes of fragrant purple/magenta flowers from summer into autumn. Flowers open in late afternoon (perhaps around four o'clock) and close in early morning. Cold hardy and heat and drought tolerant, after freezing in the fall, the top growth breaks away. Desert four o'clock emerges in the spring from a large root. Will not transplant well once established. Southwest native perennial is usually found in somewhat shaded areas.

View Full Plant Profile

Ipomea leptophylla

Bush morning glory is a non-vining herbaceous perennial with a deep taproot, allowing it to be drought tolerant, but difficult to transplant. Arching branches with narrow upright green leaves emerge from the taproot. Summer blooming with 3 inch pink to purple funnel shaped flowers that open in the morning and close in the afternoon. Bush morning glory typically inhabits sandy and sandy loan plains, meadows, prairies and roadsides.

View Full Plant Profile

Echinacea angustifolia

Echinacea angustifolia is the herbal echinacea. Native throughout most of the Midwest, and the Texas Panhandle. Very drought tolerant. It can be seen growing along roadsides and in nature generally. A good cut flower. The common name Black Samson refers to its roots. Not as showy as E. purpurea and newer introductions.

View Full Plant Profile

Recent Garden Notes

Amarillo -- Degrees of Change: How Much Climate Change has Warmed Amarillo's Weather

02/06/2019 - 15:10

Over the past two decades, Amarillo’s weather has changed noticeably. I thought the weather in 2018 to be particularly hot, but not quite as severe as the terrible years of 2011 and 2012. I didn’t enjoy the heat of these summers. Three really hot, dry, miserable summers within a decade. Will this be our future? Should I consider moving to a milder, wetter climate? How hot will it get in Amarillo, as global warming continues to warm? This article seeks to answer Amarillo’s degree of change.

Read full article

A Visit to Longwood Gardens

09/01/2018 - 16:49

Longwood Gardens includes over 1075 acres of gardens, paths through forests, woodlands and meadow, around lakes and grand plazas, fountains and a through a series of glass houses that make up the four and a half acre conservatory complex. Longwood Gardens is composed of 27 separate outdoor garden areas, 20 gardens inside the conservatory complex and four designated fountain gardens. Longwood can boast more fountains than at any other place in America. It’s specialties are many, the most evident being the fountains, elegant European flair, the extensive conservatory complex, dramatic and varied horticultural displays in an environment that feels comfortably democratic in tone through the five Longwood Gardens seasons.

Read full article

Gardening During the Age of Climate Change

04/21/2018 - 18:21

The Texas Panhandle is known for its rapidly changing weather, where temperatures race up and down a thermometer on a somewhat regular basis. Now, global warming is bringing the additional challenge of not only changing weather, but a changing climate. Hail and long-term drought damage plants. Sudden and fierce rainstorms pound weakened plants whose root systems fail to hold the soil in place. Additionally, a warming planet doesn’t preclude early devastating autumnal freezes. Yes, we in the Texas Panhandle have struggled with these conditions in the past. They are not going away, and most likely will get worse. Gardening is not for the faint of heart. Learn how to adapt and mitigate the gardening challenges climate change presents.

Read full article

High Plains Gardening

High Plains Gardening

High Plains Gardening

High Plains Gardening

High Plains Gardening

My Vision — Gateway to Southwest Gardens

Featured Photography

Featured Plants

Recent Garden Notes

On Facebook

News

New Garden Notes: Amarillo -- Degrees of Change: How Much Climate Change has Warmed Amarillo's Weather

Article Categories