High Plains Gardening

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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

Featured Photos showcases photos taken at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA this July, 2018. This series of photo is of some of the outside fountains and garden areas not included in the Garden Notes, A Visit to Longwood Gardens. Watch for the next series of photos in a few weeks featuring at conservatory complex. Sept. 5, 2018

Featured Plants

Check out my top plants for the season

Zauschneria arizonica

Grown extensively throughout the southwest, I don’t know why it has taken so long for this plant to become available in the Panhandle, especially since it is cold hardy to Zone 5.

It is a bit slow to become established, and late in coming out in the springtime – have patience and place a marker so it’s not forgotten and weeded up. Note: Early spring-emerging plant may look similar to bindweed. It is best to plant this wild fuchsia in spring, rather than the fall. I noticed better success with quart to gallon size plants.

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Sedum telephium 'Herbstfreude' (Autumn Joy)

Sedum, ‘Autumn Joy’ is one of those foolproof additions to your autumn garden, so aptly named; for the joy it brings to the autumn garden. Easily propagated by stem cuttings or root division. As with most sedums, afternoon shade helps. Grasshoppers have nibbled at its leaves in early summer without stunting the plant’s flowering ability.

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Scutellaria suffrutescens

A Plant Select Plant for 2004, Pink Texas Skullcap has often been listed as a Zone 7 plant, but it is reliably cold hardy in Zone 6 and in protected Zone 5b sights. I’ve grown it in my xeristrip since 2000. Long blooming with no maintenance ever performed. These low growing, mounding skullcaps are excellent for Panhandle xeristrips and rock gardens. Native varieties are S. drummondii, and S. resinosa. The hybrid cultivar, S. x ‘Violet Cloud’, introduced by High Country Gardens, is an excellent violet skullcap as well as the natives.

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Salvia guaranitica 'Black and Blue'

There are several varieties of Salvia guaranitica that range in shades of blue from light to dark. As with most of the tube-shaped salvia flowers, S. guaranitica is a hummingbird magnet.

Native to South America, S. guaranitica is not zoned cold hardy for the Texas Panhandle, but it has wintered over in protected Amarillo gardens in many locations for many years. It has wintered over for me at least 5 years, unprotected. Deadheading is not required.

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Physostegia virginiana

Another old garden perennial that’s still good for our Panhandle cottage gardens, Physotegia virginiana is native to eastern and southeastern US. A terrific addition to the late summer and fall garden. Comes in three pleasing colors of light pink, purplish pink and a real pretty white. The white variety "Miss Manners' and 'Summer Snow' are both better mannered, not spreading quite as vigorously. It's native habitat is in moist, rich soils, but keeping it on the lean side makes it more "obedient".

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Liatris punctata

Gayfeather is one of the High Plains jewels of autumn, sending up grasslike leaves or stalks that bloom gloriously in September and October to fuzzy purple spikes. At maturity, one plant can grow a dozen or more, size and number depending on rainfall amounts. Drier years, the stalks are few and short, but with monthly or twice a month watering, the plant displays much more vitality. The purple flowers contrast nicely with the many yellow flowers that bloom on the plains. Liatris punctata is the most drought tolerant of the genus.

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Recent Garden Notes

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.

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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.

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Foliage in the Landscape

02/05/2018 - 12:58

After one has been gardening for a few years, or perhaps, a number of years, green becomes beautiful. Green becomes beautiful at the moment when in thinking about a plant, the leaves become the main draw instead of some expectation of flowers. I briefly explore the world of leaves and the various foliage colors that give gardens clues to their use in the landscape.

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High Plains Gardening

High Plains Gardening

High Plains Gardening

High Plains Gardening

High Plains Gardening

My Vision — Gateway to Southwest Gardens

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New Garden Notes: A Visit to Longwood Gardens

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