Check out the website below. You will need fruit trees with fairly low chill hours. I would recommend trees listed at about 400-500 chill hours. There are lots of varieties introduced by LSU and the University of Florida specifically for the deep south.

Here is a link that might be useful: Justfruitsandexotics.com

My vote is Tecomaria capensis (Cape Honeysuckle). It's a vine-y shrub or a shrubby vine, well-behaved, evergreen and blooms constantly all year. It might even be correctly labeled at Lowe's.

Mme Galen gets huge and rambunctious, doesn't bloom all year. The others bloom for a short period, but you might mix in a few Carolina Jessamines for fragrance in early spring. Sweet autumn clematis isn't an option. "Purple Leaf Honeysuckle" is a selection of Japanese Honeysuckle and shouldn't be planted ANYWHERE along the Gulf Coast -- it's already an invasive, noxious weed further east. A much better choice would be the native honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens. A local nursery would be the place to find the native honeysuckle.

Whatever you choose, don't forget that you have to give it water while it's getting established.

Hope this helps.
Monica

Here is a link that might be useful: TAMU Info on Cape Honeysuckle

Hi, Barbra

Trumpet creeper. Solid and aggressive grower. If you try to grow anything other than an aggresive grower it will die or need constant care. Lowes is not the place to buy aggresive plants neither is Walmart. I have killed a bunch. Seems the salt spray, Humidity, and heat does a number on most plants. I gave up growing for many years and have started back again.

I only grow aggresive tropicals. This is where I bought mine they are dormant but soon come out of it. Good prices and shipping http://stores.ebay.com/Lees-Nursery_Vines-Groundcovers_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZ8QQftidZ2QQtZkm

I bought some trumpet creepers, honeysuckle, bitter sweet,Golden Rain Tree, Pink Rose of Sharon Shrub plus a few more colors,Forsythia Shrub (Lynwood Gold),Ginkgo Tree (Maidenhair),White Natchez CREPE MYRTLE plus a few more colors. That was from that site, you may want a pecan. They are kind of questionable here if the grow they will grow well or not at all. There is no in between.

I also bought some queen Palms (very nice fast growers) off of ebay. I am rooting some esperanza, hybiscus,sea grapes, brazilian pepper tree and confederate rose.

For fragrance Brugmansia, night blooming Jasmine, and some Plumeria.

Lantanas do well and a few others like oleander.

That is my take on this area. They will take a cold blast of air in the winter and seem to adapt to soil and humidity. I usally look for plants that are growing well when all others are struggling when I drive. That is how I pick what I will grow.

OOps almost forgot the Citrus. Now the guy who sells me feed for my sheep has some Lemons and Oranges. They got them from Walmart. Apparently Walmart brings some in for a short time period. I have seen several trees from them and they are outstanding. I check with them or drive by everyday to see if they have them in stock. He said the name on them is Mars. His trees he does nothing to them and they grow thousands of lemons, good skin and out of this world taste.There are 6 across the road and the same thing. So I am going to buy a few when they get them in.

Jim

Aransas Pass

I saw a 10 year old trumpet creeper in Port Aransas today. Wow it was massive. The base was 6" and runners 2" spreads about 30+ feet. It was growing on an arbor for shade. Quite impressive I did not know they would get that massive. She said it put out thousands of flowers each year. Requirements were none. Now it had to have its roots down in the water table. It is pretty salty down there.

I am going to make two of mine into a tree. I saw one on ebay. It looked great. It actually looked like a tree but was two vines growing together.

Jim

Jim, I got 10 1 gallon pots to plant in Rockport, should I braid the base after I plant them, or just plant them the way they are, what would you do? I need to stop weeds from blowing into my yard, from a vacant field owned by the State of Texas. Barbra

I just planted my vines today, I am so excited, I can't wait until the spring. I put mulch on top, I hope that was not a mistake. I mainly did it so my husband would not run over them with the lawnmower. If you think I should remove the mulch, I will. Barbra,

Sorry for the delay. I was working and did not check in. Email if I do not answer. What did you plant? Trumpet creepers or ?? Mulch never hurts anything so leave it.

Jim

I planted 10 trumpet creeper vines, next to the fence, I posted a picture that shows the fence where I planted them, its posted on "Gardening in Texas", this is the picture that shows a flowerbed on the east side of my house, if you look behind the flowerbed, you can see the fence, and see what I am fighting agaist, weeds, weeds, and more weeds. Barbra,

Wow they will put on a show. You might have every hummingbird for miles at your house. Those guys get pretty aggressive at times. Most of my creepers are dormant right now. I was going to put a 4 x 4 in the ground and let two grow up it into a tree. It was pretty neat to see a trumpet tree in the middle of nowhere. I never knew they got as big as the one in Port Aransas. It was a mamoth. You could actually climb up it and get on the roof. I was only 10 years old and was in partial shade. My they must be hardy for this area.

I can think of several easy solutions to the weeds. But I am a roundup person. A couple of 50 lb bags of the salt used on the shrimp boats works well also. I use pramitol on my fence line for the electric fence. Now that will make it barren for years. No matter what you do there will always be weeds. It is a fact of life where it does not freeze hard. Kind of like rust they never sleep. I do battle every year with sticker burrs. Fertilizer, water and a pre-emergence herbacide has done wonders. More than feed has them all. I am at 10% of what it was 4 years ago. Now those are hard to kill without killing everything.

Send a picture of your lot. There are some grasses that will choke out all weeds if there is full sun or close to it. Some of the bermuda, zoysias and my favorite the Bahia grass. I have a 24/7 gardening crew. My sheep. So I like aggressive grasses also. Bahia is hard to stop when it is started. It does look like carpet but sends up seed stalks and reseeds everything. It has a 6-8' root system deep into the ground.

Love those invasives

Happy Gardening,

Jim

Jim, I would love to see the trumphet tree in Port Aransas, where is it? We will be going down in a couple of weeks, we go to Port Aransas to get oysters at Erlines. If you could tell me I know my husband would love to see it. Is it blooming, or is it dormant? I will pass on the agressive roses. I have one, and I only have it because, oh well its a long story..... I planted a cutting in Rockport, if you want to see it. It is called the "The Flores Street Eater" It is very easy to root, and has beautiful cream blooms,, you can check it out on the internet, it has a following. If you want cuttings bring your clippers. I also use the purple cap round up. I think it is a must in our area, to help control weeds. This year we put down corn gluten, hoping it will help control stickers. We have 3 city dogs, if they get a sticker, they do not even try to pull it out, they cry until you come to pull it. Barbra,

The trumpet tree is not in Port A. The vines I saw which had a 6"+ base was at a house I was picking up some free tile from a person who works with me. She did not think it was special. I sure did. It was dormant as of a week ago. I will look for the trumpet tree picture it is on my computer somewhere.

I would like to try some of the Flores street eater. I looked at it on the internet. Quite a big bush. It must have some drainage to keep it watered. If you want to go by and look at a vine I can see if she will not mind. Not much to look at other than the wow factor. Knowing your vines might get that big.

Springtime is close. I still do not see citus at Walmart. I might go ask the guy at the fruit stand to see if he will pick some up. He goes to the Valley every week. If I see them at Walmart do you want me to pick you one up?

Jim

Jim, Linda, is going to try and see if she can get a lemon tree for me, if not I will keep checking at Rockports Wal Mart. Do you want me to start a cutting for you for the Flores Street Eater? My rose in Rockport gets very little water, and it has survived. My husband loves this rose, I think you will too.
Forget about the vine, I will just wait for mine to bloom.

Barbra

I would love a start of the rose. That would be my call on the creeper. I need to go grab some more tile so I will take a picture. A friend of mine is still I believe with the master Gardeners in Rockport. (Bob Crawford.) You also need a orange tree. I will call the super Walmart and see when they are going to have them in. I drive past the one in Aransas Everyday going and coming from work. Just called them and she said (Tina-store mgr in AP)she would find out Saturday. She did say they will arrive this month but would check with the nursery that supplies them to find out what date.

Now on to the BOP and Charles Grimaldi Brugs. I want it all in the ground before March. This is a planting weekend for me.

Jim

Jim, do you need a brugmansia, or have you already got one? I have brugmansia plants to share, if you need any? I have the dark yellow gold , and the peach and cream . However my dark gold one is blooming right now, but the blooms are almost a light yellow. If you go to the "Gardening in Texas forum, and check my thread marked, "Finally Pictures" ( my first time posting pictures)at the bottom of the post Linda put "Rockport Gardens", if you click on it, you can see the yellow brugmansia, my peach one, is also posted, but it doesn't have a leaf on it, and it is on the south side of the well house, the dark yellow one is on the North side, try and figure that one out?

Barbra,

I could always use a cutiing of your favorite. I do have a bunch of Brugs. I found the Mars Oranges and Meyer Lemons at lowes and some Giant birds of Paradise. Real nice plants and trees. They will have more next Friday and I do not know about Walmart yet. I did find 2 burgandy Rubber trees there for 9.99 absolutly beautiful with 6-8 plant growing in each container. I will try and seperate them. I am looking for 2 more oranges from whereever. I came home loaded today with plants and cuttings and Veggies. I do like to have the 1st pick from the stores. I dropped a couple of hundred but they were so nice and all in 5 gallon containers and blooming and some already had fruit.

Again let me know if you need me to pick something up. They seem to go fast on the citus. I am still hunting oranges because Lowes did not have any others worth spending $ 29.99 on. You might call a Lowes in SA and see if they are going to carry citrus. It may not be so competitive up there.

Jim

Barbra,

Have you considered the Crossvine, Cross-Vine, Trumpet Flower Bignonia capreolata. I like it much better than the Trumpet Vine, Trumpet Creeper, Cow-Itch Vine Campsis radicans which can become very, very invasive. I've seen where it has knocked down a fence because of its weight. I know that you already planted them, so just try to keep them from running away and taking over Copano Village, and then heading down my way! HA!

And we are having our Aransas/San Patricio MG Spring Plant Sale on March 17, 2007 from 9 till 1. I'm in the process of trying to get some citrus trees for the sale. I'll keep you informed.

And yes, Bob is still a MG here in Rockport.

Linda, they are planted 100ft to the closest flowerbed. All I want is for something to stop the weeds, from blowing thru my yard in the summer, and something the hummingbirds will love. Don't worry, they will never get away from me, remember like Jim, I use roundup. I am going to plant 6 Carolina Jessamine Vines when I go down in a few weeks, I plan to plant these behind the queen palms. I picked them since they stay green all year, and will go in the main yard. Barbra,

Just an update to the 10 mademe galen trumphet vines I planted in the early part of the year. The plants were not doing too well, so I took grass clippings and put at the base of each plant, about 2 inches thick. It really helped, they are sending off new shoots. Maybe I will see some blooms this year. Barbra,