EXTREME SURVIVORS
Evergreens and colorful bloomers rescue winter-browned landscapes from the doldrums
FEBRUARY can be the cruelest month for Houston area gardeners, especially following spells of record-breaking cold. We don’t have the blues. We have the browns.
Landscapes normally filled with greens are withered and dead-looking — brown, brown, brown — and it’s still a few weeks early to prune the dormant perennials that will bounce back when the weather warms. (Trimming now could produce tender new growth that will be vulnerable if winter brings another freeze.)
This is why a lot of gardeners are loving pansies right now. Those perky, vivid winter annuals are lighting up pots and swaths of beds with their rich, jeweled petals — about the only color in many yards across town. Pansies will putter out once the spring heat sets in; they’re winter annuals.
Friends also are giving kudos to camellias that are in full bloom. Bringing pink, crimson or white color to otherwise bland yards, these great, old-fashioned evergreen shrubs even withstood flooding from Hurricane Harvey at Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens. They
prefer morning sun or bright shade.
Spring will come soon enough … but I have yet to see the yellow blossoms of winter jessamine that sometimes brighten fences by early February. Ditto for the narcissus that are normally nodding their pretty white heads in my garden by now. Buds finally poked through last weekend and should be blooming soon.
Walking through a Houston neighborhood this week, I began to understand why people still rely so heavily on bulletproof-but-boring evergreen shrubs and vines. Boxwood, purple loropetalum, nandina, yew, fig ivy, Asian jasmine — none of them natives to the Texas Gulf Coast — are so prolifically planted they are nearly invisible. Until they are the only thing that looks alive, which has happened this winter.
Such plants can help provide structure, defining a garden’s spaces. They may be useful but they are not to be over-used, because they are really no fun at all — the plant equivalent of stodgy people. (While it might be OK to have one or two in a corner during a party, a whole room of them can be dreadful.)
Now is a good time to plant new shrubs and trees. Their roots need time to settle in before hot weather arrives; and with the bones of the garden exposed, it’s easier to see where some additional height and form are needed most. Hardscaping can also contribute interest, especially when plants are dormant; so examine pathways and borders, too.
Houston gardeners need plants that will be able to withstand not just the occasional hard freeze but also floods and drought and the blistering highs of August and September. Year-round blooms are not required, but pleasant greenery is.
We polled area gardeners on Facebook to hear about their “extreme survivors” since the big freeze. Following are a dozen of the winners (in addition to camellias), listed in no particular order. They offer variations in form, size, texture, color and light requirements; and include shrubs, ground covers and hummingbirdsupporting natives.
Plants that have gone dormant and lost leaves didn’t make the cut for this story, although a garden should have plenty of those, as well. (What is the point of gardening really, without some reminder of seasons coming and going — even the brown season, so long as it’s brief ?)
One planting caveat: No matter what the weather brings, a plant that needs sun will never thrive in shade, or vice versa. Always start with organically rich, welldraining soil; and be aware that shrubs such as azaleas and camellias prefer slightly acidic conditions.
Rosemary
What’s not to love about a wonderfully fragrant, deep and delicious evergreen herb that can show a romantic side if it’s allowed to roam or drape over walls, but also can be manicured? The “prostrate” variety, true to its name, lies flattish and sprawls. Conditions: Full sun
Dusty Miller
This reliable bedding plant, beloved for its fuzzy texture and silver-gray leaves, did not appreciate Harvey’s rains but recovered — then survived several nights in the low 20s without cover. Conditions: Sun
Chrysanthemums
More often seen as potted plants in the fall, mums don’t have to be tossed when their blooms are done. Put them in the ground, cut them back, and watch them return each year. Conditions: Sun
Holly fern
A fine filler, with 3-by-3-foot clumps of stiff, shiny and slightly serrated fronds that look more holly than fern. Conditions: Shade
Giant liriope
A dependably graceful border plant, thanks to its grassy form and deep evergreen leaves. Small flower spikes in late spring, and black berries follow in fall. Conditions: Sun or shade
Giant ligularia
With clusters of glossy, rounded leaves held like umbrellas on their short stems, ligularias form fine clumps that provide a contrast to most other plants, growing tall stems with yellow flowers in late summer and fall. Conditions: Shade While spikes of tiny flowers in pink or white have disappeared since the deep freeze, the small leaves of salvia gregii — a hummingbird and butterfly favorite — look healthy. Conditions: Full sun
Shrub roses
Knockout and Drift series roses are among the most carefree shrubs and provide color almost nonstop. Look for Knockouts in pinks and reds; smaller, lowergrowing Drifts are available in a wider range of colors, including apricot, peach, yellow and white. Conditions: Full sun
Mahonia
A mounding, 4- to 5-foot evergreen with leathery, toothed foliage; racemes of bright-yellow blooms during the cool season give way to a cascading, blue fruit. Conditions: Bright or partial shade
Azaleas
These Houston favorites may only put on their show of pink or white flowers for a few weeks in early spring, but the shrubs are dependable fillers all year. Big mounding varieties carry a whiff of Southern gentility. Multiseason Encores are smaller but bloom more than once a year. Conditions: Morning sun or bright shade
Gardenias
Deep green, shiny leaves make gardenias a good accent shrub all year, and the fragrant white flowers of late spring are swooninducing. Conditions: Shade to partial shade
Crossvine
Bignonia capreolata rambles far and wide — even scrambling up telephone poles — yet still has a relatively delicate appearance. Hummingbirds love the coral, bell-shaped flowers. Conditions: Sun or shade