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cactusgarden_gw

drought loving plants in Oklahoma

cactusgarden
12 years ago

I am sharing some pictures of my yard in Central Oklahoma which is holding up very well in the heat and drought.

Prince's Plume, Missouri Primrose and cactus shot in June

Chamisa, Winterfat, Silver King Artemsia, Flameflower, Desert Marigold, Spanish Broom, Hesperaloe, Mountain Pinks shot in July

Cholla, Standing Cypress, Cenizo, Thelosperma shot in July

View looking toward street in front

Longshot of backyard

Winterfat, Various Cactus, Red Barberry in front toward house.

Mormon Tea from Utah

Backyard looking toward house, Desert Spoon, Paperflower, Twistleaf Yucca, Apache Plume, Fringed Sage, Various Cactus




Wild Pink Snapdragon in June

Comments (20)

  • roselee z8b S.W. Texas
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Wow -- I really like your desert landscape! The way you've arranged the plants is absolutely inspired, plus the way you've used different sized gravel and stones is wonderful!

    How did you prepare the soil to receive the dry landscape plants? Did you dig in gravel and sand? Did you use landscape fabric? Do you hand water some of the flowering plants? Are they in different soil? How much annual rain does your part of Oklahoma normally receive, if there is such a thing as normal?

    Lots of questions, but mainly I want to say that you've done a terrific job using drought loving plants in your landscape.

    Thank you for posting your pictures here. I've looked at them again and again.

  • rock_oak_deer
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hi there cactusgarden! Welcome to the Texas forum and I'm so glad you decided to take my advice and share your beautiful yard here too!

    I think you'll fit in just great here and I know others will welcome you too.

  • pjtexgirl
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Amazing! I didn't know they could go that xeric in OK. Shows what I know. I love your white stucco house with a cobalt blue door a lovely meditteranian look.

  • greybird
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thank you so much for sharing this, I'm planning this for my front yard as soon as it cools down some. It is plenty dry enough to create a xeriscape, nothing else has survived there.

    I'm gathering information on cactus and what is cold hardy enough for zone 7. I see the prickly pear, cholla and other stuff. What varieties are you growing that don't perish in the cold?

  • cactusgarden
    Original Author
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thanks for the interest and the invitation. This forum is the only one talking about plants I am interested in. I love Texas natives. NM too.

    About rainfall, we are in the same zone as Dallas and Austin from what I can tell on the map I have. It varies but we are not arid. I am in OKC.

    We brought in a lot of sand. Three dump truck loads which was fairly inexpensive. A pickup load here that you get yourself, which we have also done in spots needing more, runs about the same price as a few bags of play sand from Home Depot. Sand is very cheap here. When I plant, depending on where it is because the front is 6 to 8 inches deep of pure sand, I always just buy a $1.00 bag of top soil and mix it into the planting hole and have done well with that. The soil under the sand is either hard clay or garden soil (this being where my old beds used to be). I have a lot of plants in that pure sand that have naturalized from seeds and they do great in it.

    In the back we purchased a dump truck load of top soil and another load of sand and hired a guy with a cat to bring it back there while my husband and I spread it, trying to keep up. We made three large hills. Then we covered the entire yard, front and back in river rock we found fairly reasonably priced out of the city. We used a wheel barrow to do most of it, working on those piles until they finally disappeared. In all we got 90 tons of each, soil, sand and river rock and then got a pickup load of the larger river rock to make a border. That was four years ago.

    There is no fabric under it and I don't have a lot of problem with weeds. I hand pick except in spring I have tree seeds to deal with from the neighbors and thats the worst. The kinds of cactus that will grow here are any kind of prickly pear except for the tree types from extreme south Texas and Mexico, which need zone 8 but in reality, zone 9 would probably be safer.

    I have a lot of various barrel types that do very well but can only grow the cold hardy agaves listed at zone 7. I tried, the others will not winter over. Some South American Echinopsis barrel types have survived in the ground here for 4 years now except I got a bit of tip damage last winter.

    I have a lot of plants and cactus listed as zone 8 that do very well. The property is on a slope and with the good drainage from the sand, I get through winter with no problem and have survived a few rainy spells fine. I found just about any kind of prickly pear will survive easily and I think I have just about collected all of them. Lots of different kinds of chollas too. You will have no trouble growing them there as long as they don't stand in water in winter. The cold is no problem, its the drainage you need to be concerned with.

    For sources..
    Check out Cold Hardy Cactus (Kelly Grummons in Colorado), Lithops Nursery (Opuntia page), CactusStore, online. there are other sources but I can't remember them right now. Then there's a few people who swap pads and cuttings on the Gardenweb Cactus forum. Mostly they are into greenhouse types but every now and then a person is swapping opuntia pads, cholla cuttings or agave pups.

  • roselee z8b S.W. Texas
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thank you so much for the information on how you got your beautiful zeric landscape going. What an inspiration! But how did you get inspired to do this? Moving tons of sand and rock in is a huge endeavor, but was well worth it it's plain to see. The stucco walls and fences make a perfect backdrop.

    If you have more pictures we'd love to see them, and hear of what you have planned for the future.

  • rock_oak_deer
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    That really is an amazingly ambitious project and it turned out great.

    I have family in NM and cholla grows all over the place there. I didn't think it would do well here because they are much higher altitude and don't get nearly as hot. Next time I'll bring some home and try it.

  • cactusgarden
    Original Author
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Rock, all of these cactus will grow in your area, no problem. Probably there are a lot you can grow that I can't, especially the agaves. Those Chollas (imbricata) will grow just about anywhere in the south half of the US except in standing water and they are native to Texas too. The only problem I ever had was once we got a long rainy spell one spring and mine fell over from the weight and the roots couldn't stay anchored in the ground. I have had a couple of large prickly pear types, like those big green nearly spineless ones growing all over Dallas fall over from too much rain if they are planted in soil because they get so heavy. You see a lot of these same ones here in OKC. They don't do that if planted in sand. At least they never have. I hear those big cactus in Arizona have been known to explode if they get an unusual amount of rain.

  • wantonamara Z8 CenTex
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I have gone to plant swaps in Austin/buda and I always come home with the prickly pear that I bring. Maybe after this year there will be a wake up call about them. Maybe I should do the San antonio swap this coming fall instead.

    I always love seeing pictures of Cactusgardens place. We have traded for years now. She infected me with the opuntia craze and I now have 60 varieties, some still small. Watch out for the obsession. And I have sent up many Texas Natives her way. They do better in her garden than mine(sigh). I just loved seeing the mountain pinks, that is a sign of a very good natives gardener. They are HARD and extremely specific in their needs. They hardly had a showing in the hills around me this year.Sometimes I think I am here just to collect seeds for CG. (LOL) Hey where is that picture of the scutelleria drumundii or S wrightii? It was so gorgeous. In the wild they are a bit rangier. They looked outstanding on your reddish rock. So dark blue and thick.

  • rock_oak_deer
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    cactusgarden - Here's a link to my posts from last year with pics so you can catch up with the work we've done in our yard. The zebra grass doesn't look quite as good this year and I'll divide or move it in the fall in favor of a more drought tolerant grass.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Past posts

  • cactusgarden
    Original Author
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Rock,

    I had something completely different pictured. I really like what you've done and the Texas Star etc. That Russian Sage is going to engulf that rock, mine became a giant planted in that same kind of hot sunny situation. If its the same variety, it will also produce suckers. Still, its so pretty I have no regrets. I was glad to see the Cenizo planted in the median. I was afraid I'd made a mistake doing mine like that but seeing yours, I liked it and may decide not to risk killing mine by moving it early next spring.

    I don't like the Zebra Miscanthus grass there at all. Personal opinion. It looks imported and out of place. I would choose a Muhly Lindheimerri instead for a tall grass and just give that other European interloper away. I'm a snob that way. Check out the Ornamental Grass forum and look at the Dumosa that Wantanamara posted too. You are in zone 8 and can grow that. She says it takes some shade too.

    Thanks for reposting the pictures. It really helps when talking about what you are wanting to do and I like seeing them to get ideas too. We got rain last night. I couldn't believe it! Decent rain too.

  • rock_oak_deer
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thanks, cg. Agree that the zebra grass doesn't work there and already planned to move it soon. That spot doesn't get watered much and it needs more attention. I've loved those horizontal stripes since I first saw them in a median strip, so it will stay and go around back to a flower bed that gets regular water. I'm not a total native purist especially when I like something.

    Muhly Lindheimeri does well in my yard and is a possibility, but I'm also considering Nolina Texana or Beargrass if I can find it.

    I'm also moving the Ruby Savannah to add more Nasella Tenuissima there to maximize the impact. The strip across the driveway is getting done this fall and there's going to be plenty of grasses for sure.

    So glad you got rain! That's got to help with the heat there.

  • wantonamara Z8 CenTex
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    ROck Oak. Nolina Texanna can be found in Austin easily at stores that sell natives IE Barton Springs Nursery and Natural Gardener. I grow the plant and just collected some seeds. THere is an incredible bunch of them growing on the Pedernales river overhanging a limestone bluff. I should check for their seed when I am down at my friends house.

  • rock_oak_deer
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thanks, I'm going to check at Hill Country Gardens when I'm there on friday too. She usually carries it, but was out the last time. I'll have to see if there are any around that I can dig up or raid for seeds since I have plenty of area left to plant in the back.

    Barton Springs and Natural Gardener are on my field trip list. I went to Great Outdoors in the spring and picked up a few plants I don't usually see here in SA.

  • roselee z8b S.W. Texas
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Shirley, Beargrass grows around here so you probably have it near your place too. Sounds like it may be blooming now. I'm going to look for it.

  • cactusgarden
    Original Author
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I planted Beargrass microcarpa seeds and they are germinating. They came up easy. We don't have it around here for sale and I wanted to set some out for fall planting. Does anyone know how long it takes to get a decent sized plant from seed?

  • wantonamara Z8 CenTex
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    my N. texana bloomed this spring. I just collected a pocket full of seed.. My N lindheimeri flowered but aborted the seeds. I did see some in town that had a nice flush of seed.

  • rock_oak_deer
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    wontonamara - Are you still thinking of coming to the swap? I'd enjoy meeting you as I don't think you've been at the ones I've attended so far.

    I really could use some Nolina seeds since I didn't find any in my special spot where I go to collect seeds and plants.

    Hill Country Gardens had N. Nelsonii, but I decided to get other plants yesterday and wait on the Nolina to see if I can find or trade for seeds.

    She had so many great plants in stock I couldn't list them all. Might go back for Desert Milkweed I passed up and now keep thinking about.

  • wantonamara Z8 CenTex
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    The last time I was at Natural garden they had N macrocarpa, texana, lindheimeri, matapensis and nelsonii in 5 gallons and some in one gallons.

    CG it takes several years for the N macrocarpa to put on size.. they are slow growing. I will look and see how large and $$ if you want me too. I am growing mine hard and 7 years and no bloom yet. It won't do anything when I tap my feet either. They are on top of rock in a very rough sloping draw. No root space without searching for cracks on the rock rubble kind of place. no watering either. They would like your garden better . Watch your seed bloom before my old plants.

  • soonerplant
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I am from Oklahoma. I am thinking to convert my flower bed to desert garden. Do you know where I can get sand and rock in OKC area?

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