Plant Profiles Explanation

I am planning for the Plant Profiles section to be extensive. I hope you will bear with me in waiting until time and opportunity permit me to complete this section. The plants I have profiled first, simply put, are plants that I took pictures of during last year's growing season. Many pictures remain to be taken, and plants profiled. If you do not see a plant or a specific genus, species, variety, cultivar or hybrid profiled, that does not mean the plant is not suitable. It may simply mean I have not gotten to it yet. As I review plants for these profiles, I continually marvel over the number of low water-use and low maintenance plants that will thrive in our climate and conditions. There are hundreds of plants that will do well in our area; this will never be a complete source of all plants appropriate to the Panhandle. For one thing, new varieties and cultivars are introduced each year. Plant explorers continue to discover and test plants they hope to be suitable for colder southwest gardens, such as our area. Most of the plants profiled, I've identified by Botanic Latin names. In a few cases, I have not been able to identify either the exact species, variety or cultivar. As you can see from the list of plants, they're arranged in alphabetic order by Botanic Latin name. The common name is given in the individual plant profile. Please use the Google search function on the left for searching a common name, or other word inside this website, as well as the Internet as a whole for additional information. I have profiled a few old-fashioned garden plants because some of these have gone out of favor, giving ground to hot new introductions. Please remember, hot new introductions heralded nationally are for the broad national market, and may not survive to the third year, the real test for any perennial. In the first year, they may perform very well, a little less so the second year, and utterly fail the third year. Plants for the garden should be a mix, similar to our circle of friendship; make new friends, but cherish the old. They are tried and true. They'll certainly stand by you when the weather goes extreme! Many of the plants profiled have a wide range of adaptability. If they don't work in one section of your garden, try it in a different micro niche. One of the standards I apply to the plants I recommend is the degree of maintenance. If the plant has to be in intensive care to make it through our hot searing, windy weather and up and down temperature swings in the winter, that plant is not suitable. I have found that even though some of these plants will grow in poor caliche soil, they will perform better with soil amending, as well as with afternoon shade, even for full sun plants. They're versatile. I do recommend some annuals and "exotics" that need to be replaced each year, but aside from their replacement, they are little or no trouble. The amount of maintenance allocated a plant is always the gardener's conscious decision. Please experience the joy and excitement of plant discovery! Angie Hanna February 12, 2006