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Plants that do well in Austin Tx (list in post)
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Posted by sp0ng3r (My Page) on Sun, Nov 8, 09 at 23:39
| Hey all, I am moving to Austin Tx soon, and I got some great advise on nurseries. I had another question. I will be traveling with some plants from California. I have listed them below:
-Ficus Benjamina
-Ponytail Palm
-several varieties of dracena (corn plant and Ribbon Dracaena(potted in soil/outdoors) (indoors)
-Baby Tears (hanging plant)
-Cast Iron Plant (indoors)
-Bottle Palm
-Japanese Maple (potted for transplant)
-Several species of Succulents
-White Birch
-Mulberry Tree (potted for transplant)
-Weeping Willow (potted for possible transplant)
-Several types of ferns (australian tree, Maidenhair Fern)
I was wondering if any of these plants will do alright out there? Also, I was wondering if anyone had any good recommendations for plants. I love palms, ferns, and am looking for a low mess shade tree.
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Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Plants that do well in Austin Tx (list in post)
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| Hi, Welcome to Texas. I live in San Antonio, but can address some of the plants on your list that I have experience with. Japanese Maple will work in Central Texas, but it needs deep shade in the summer. Be prepared for it to turn brown and drop leaves in August anyway. Mine are growing new leaves now just in time to drop them for winter. I brought three from Virginia in containers last year and they remain in containers until I find the right microclimate for them. Metro Maples in Ft. Worth has great info and they are developing heat tolerant varieties. My ficus (alii) stays inside all year as it is too large to move outside. Dracaena and all my other houseplants go out in March and are still out until it gets cold which could be about two more weeks. I have a large Boston Fern that does great outside all year, but it is in a protected spot. I don't bring it in because of the mess. Philodendron Selloum stays out year 'round too, but I cover it if it gets cold. Depending on where you are in Austin you could grow bananas and ginger. Just be prepared to get lots of exercise moving them from sun to shade to winter protection. We do get freezes here, so true tropicals like palms can't successfully stay out all year. There are some fan palms that can and they are used in landscaping. A neighbor planted large white birches last spring and they survived the summer quite well and that was one of our hottest, driest on record. Hope you have a good move. |
RE: Plants that do well in Austin Tx (list in post)
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| You might want to check which plants can and can't be brought into Texas. Here is a comment about someone wanting to bring plants into Texas from Florida. You can check for what you can and can't bring in on website: Importing Plants to Texas. And NO, I'm not the "plant police", but just a concerned Texas gardener. |
RE: Plants that do well in Austin Tx (list in post)
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| You can try Shantung maple instead of Japanese maple if you have a lot of sun. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Shantung maple
RE: Plants that do well in Austin Tx (list in post)
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| Check out GrowGreen.org. The site seems to be down as I'm posting this, but maybe it'll be back up by the time you see it. They have a list of native and well adapted plants that really do good in Austin and Central Texas. It's more than just a list of names, too ~ they give just about all the growing info you'll need (size, light requirements, water needs, notes on seasonal or wildlife interest, etc.). That'd be a good jumping off point for you. |
RE: Plants that do well in Austin Tx (list in post)
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| I see weeping willow in a few places, but they will need tons of water and they won't like our heat. Their roots will search out any water pipes that you have in the yard. One development in Dripping Springs is trying to make the grounds look like Vermont or something. They also don't think much of our alkaline soil so the developers had to bring in a huge berm of special dirt. I am amazed that the trees are still alive but they are.. Cast Iron plants are an outdoor plant here in Austin. White Birch are water hogs. I don't see them around town so there must be a reason. We have been having severe water restrictions here in Austin. What area of Austin are you moving too. The soil changes drastically here. There is a huge change in the geography and all this will depend on where in town that you live. I used to live in Central austin and I was on a clay cutbank of the Colorado river. I had beautiful fertile soil that had been worked for 100 years and retained moisture but had drainage. I am now 30 miles west of town , high and dry on limestone rubble, rock and caliche. I am having to relearn gardening all over. It can rain 5 inches and the puddles are gone the same day. but the soil is moving down the valley also. The environment is so fragile out here. only the tough survive. |
RE: Plants that do well in Austin Tx (list in post)
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- Posted by matx 8b (My Page) on
Tue, Nov 10, 09 at 11:59
| Also check out Central Texas Gardener - a local TV show. It's available through iTunes Podcast so you can check out some old episodes before you get here. |
RE: Plants that do well in Austin Tx (list in post)
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RE: Plants that do well in Austin Tx (list in post)
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| I think I will pass on the weeping willow or the birch since I do not want to waste water or ruin my pipes (or the neighbors). A few other plants I like are plumeria and the red banana plants/trees, do those do well at all either? |
RE: Plants that do well in Austin Tx (list in post)
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| Also, How do citrus trees do in Austin? which ones do best, which ones do not do well? I currently have a Satsuma tree in a pot. Will that be a safe bet? |
RE: Plants that do well in Austin Tx (list in post)
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| I don't think you will be able to grow citrus in the Austin area because it gets cold. And because of the danger of introducing diseases and/or insects into the South Texas citrus groves, it is illegal to IMPORT citrus trees into Texas. All you have to do is find a nursery or garden center in Texas and buy them there. |
RE: Plants that do well in Austin Tx (list in post)
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| People grow plumeria in pots and bring them in. I do see satsuma oranges for sale at barton Springs nursery . I ate a satsuma at a plant swap that someone grew maybe not in Austin but somewhere close. They probably need some protection of sorts. Are you from an area that has a brown moth outbreak. I was hearing about them. A real bummer.We do not have them here. We do not have Mediterranean fruit fly either. Don't want them either. there are some tropical enthusiasts that have whole gardens of different tender plants. They do go to some lengths to grow them. |
RE: Plants that do well in Austin Tx (list in post)
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| Plumerias will freeze and die if not brought in, and the bananas will do the same if they're not hardy to zone 8b. They're like citrus in that some varieties are hardy and some aren't. Most lemons and limes aren't hardy, while Meyer lemons, oranges, grapefruit and a few others (I think including satsumas) are, though no necessarily reliably so if we get an ice storm with 15 degree temps. They'd likely get bit back quite a bit unless you covered them during those times, so it'd be good to plant them on the south side of the house where they'll be a bit sheltered and where it'd be easy to reach with an electric cord after you wrap them in Christmas lights and floating row cover. We're zone 8b in this area, so if you look up your plants and see that they're hardy to that zone, they'll do fine here. If you're going to live in the middle of the city, you'll have the heat island effect going for you so could push that to zone 9, or even higher with some protection. |
RE: Plants that do well in Austin Tx (list in post)
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| I am probably going to live in Round Rock, just outside of Austin. |
RE: Plants that do well in Austin Tx (list in post)
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| That is either chalk or blacklands prairie or hill country limestone . It maters what side of IH 35 that you are on. |
RE: Plants that do well in Austin Tx (list in post)
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| I would be very close to the 35 on the east side. |
RE: Plants that do well in Austin Tx (list in post)
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| Welcome to Texas :-) You asked: "Also, How do citrus trees do in Austin? which ones do best, which ones do not do well?" My friend Linda M. says icicles hung for days off of her "Changsha Mandarin" trees for days and they were not damaged in the least. It is very a very reliable winter hardy tangerine. Here is a picture of one at Antique Rose Emporium in San Antonio. The lady there said their trees are about 9 years old. Click on thumbnail for a larger view:
They are very sweet, very easy to peel and have a few seeds. Several of us stood around eating and spitting seeds -- LOL ... at ARE a couple of days ago when the picture was taken. Satsuma's are probably more readily available, but not as reliably hardy, but everybody goes for them because they are seedless. I have both, but they are young trees and have not produced yet. There are pictures of full size specimens of both Changsha and Satsuma on the Texas Gallery in the thread about the San Antonio Botanical Center. Here is a thread about winter hardy citrus that was on the GW Citrus Forum. Happy Texas Gardening! |
Here is a link that might be useful: Winter Hardy Citrus Thread - Citrus Forum
RE: Plants that do well in Austin Tx (list in post)
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| Wow, thank you for the helpful post. That is good news to hear. I appreciate it. :) |
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