"The World Is Too Much With Us" by William Wordsworth (circa 1802)

When I started the Chronicle's Lazy Gardener column back in the late '70s, Jerry Baker was a somewhat-controversial national horticulture figure.

I really liked one of his favorite sayings, " Plants Are Like People." Treated the same ways, they tended to react the same ways, Jerry would maintain. I tended to think of them that way too.

This phrase came to mind recently as I looked over the multiple dead-stick clusters in my our new "landscape." ( It has a LONG way to go to drop those quote marks).  My recently-transplanted  Mexican bauhinia (orchid tree), Rosedown gardenia, thryallis and pink magnolia were all very old, thriving plants with deep root systems. Surely, I thought, if I moved them with tender loving care, they'd survive.

Since I'd promised Husband I wouldn't use the ax, I took advantage of recent rains (wet soil!). Thryallis and magnolia cooperated and finally agreed to being dug up, albeit after quite a battle with a shovel. Mexican bauhinia and gardenia obviously didn't want to leave their decades old home either, but were finally no match for a cable tied to my car (don't tell Husband!).

 

I whacked all four back to a couple of feet high. Except for the magnolia, all were dormant anyway and wouldn't have fit in my car otherwise. (See . . . ALWAYS have reason for pruning!)

 

Long story short, I think of Jerry when I talk to my plants. I have tremendous respect for their tenacity. If they've survive my neglect -- some for 5+ decades -- they're definitely good lazy gardener plants. Delighted to report that all four have teeny-tiny new green sprouts! No guarantee of future health, of course. But, promising.

 

I really hate writing about plants that I know might be hard to find. But none of these should be with the exception of what I still call my "Rosedown" gardenia, purchased decades ago when I spoke at a Southern horticulture conference at Rosedown Plantation in St. Francisville, LA.  The gardenia had been growing there at least since the Civil War.  Stephen F. Austin University's Mast Arboretum in Nacogdoches has sold starter plants at its annual sales in the past, but word is not this spring. Hopefully yes, though, in the fall.

  

Woods around Houston to the north and east are blooming with wild Carolina jessamine (above). It's a great landscape plant, usually the first of our spring-blooming color vines. To transplan my own Carolina Jessamine (not pictured above!), I had to cut it away from the fence through which it tightly intertwined over the decades. Can't tell if it's going to return or not, but nurseries are full of these right now.

 

 

"Little we see in Nature that is ours . . ."  I like to think Mr. Wordsworth is smiling down when I get so excited seeing my most favorite wildflowers appear in the spring: those that used to turn our lawns into a veritable emerald mead, as cultivated patterned wildflower splashes were called in ancient Ireland.
Lawn fanatics may complain about my "weeds" (above). But I loved and protected lawn violets, strawberry grass, dandilions, oxalis and blackberry blooms. They disappear anyway when the ground heats up.

 

 

SOON WE'LL BE IN OFFICIAL TEXAS WILDFLOWER SEASON, when the dogwood and bluebonnets, above, and other more "accepted" native bloomers appear.

If you want to see Texas dogwoods in full glory, hurry. Logging has seriously devastated so much of East Texas' native dogwood habitat. It's nothing like it used to be. To truly appreciate this gift of Nature, drop in on the 80th Annual Dogwood Trails Celebration 

 

Texas has numerous websites and facebook pages that detail the latest wildflower sightings (usually this means bluebonnets). One such is: facebook.com/TexasWildflowerReport/. The 54th Annual 2018 Bluebonnet Festival will be April 14-15 in Chappell Hill.

 

Bluebonnets and dogwoods have one thing in common. They both require EXCELLENT drainage. This is why you don't often see either in Houston, except for specially-sown bluebonnets on sloping highway banks. Dogwoods prefer the sandy soils of East Texas. Neither particularly care for our prolonged winter/spring rainy spells. Think "high & dry" if you're considering planting either.

Too late now for bluebonnet seed. Plant that in November/December. But nurseries are full of already-started plants and they should do fine. They will reseed but not re-sprout if they stay too wet.  And if you don't mow them down in spring. The newly-sprouted foliage looks like clover.

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"TOO BAD YOU CAN'T GROW BEER HERE," Husband once said to me.  Actually, you can and Galveston County Master Gardener John Jons does.  In fact, hops -- one of the four main ingredients in beer -- are the International Herb Association's Herb of the Year.  "Green Gold" -- as IAH has dubbed hops -- has benefits far beyond its attraction as a brew, such as uses as a component in stress relievers, anxiety reducers and sleep aids, plus an antibacterial impact and positive effects on skin and hair.

Want to try planting hops?  John gives great tips from his presentation at the 2018 Galveston Herb Fair below.

 

 

 

 The hop plant can be an attractive large climbing vine-like ornamental. The hop plant's flowers called cones are used in herbal medicines and as a flavoring and stability agent in beer. The young hops shoots may be eaten like asparagus. To grow hop plants: