Mexican Plum
Occasionally it’s nice to push your boundaries. When travelling, I look for familiar plants, interesting history, architecture, and local landscapes. Spring break afforded a trip with my oldest granddaughter to visit her maternal grandmother and great grandmother in south Texas. Hoped to see fields of blue bonnets Lupine spp. Well, not so fast! Drought there has delayed their appearance, but to my surprise the landscape there has miles of Live Oak Quercus virginiana. It didn’t have our Spanish moss but instead there were clumps of moss, Tillandsia recurvata, about the size of a tennis ball. Like our draping moss it is an “air plant,” providing habitat for insects, and, in turn, benefits for songbirds and other animals. Speaking of birds, the first morning of our visit we were greeted by the mourning doves, cardinals, and Carolina wrens loudly welcoming us to Goliad, one of the oldest towns in Texas.
We arrived at night, so I was surprised on our visit to see so many familiar trees and shrubs and a few unfamiliar ones too. Across the street from grandma’s old 1904 farmhouse was a beautiful Sable palmetto and what appeared to be live oaks, only they had white flowers, rough leaves, and berries instead of catkins and acorns. Mexican plum, Prunus mexicana, or Bigtree plum were all over the yard. Two large Vitex shrubs were planted on either side of the front walk, which according to family lore were from seeds from the cemetery where a great-great grandmother is buried. The medium purple blooms show off in terminal clusters and are especially attractive to pollinators. Out in the back shrubby yaupon holly, hackberry, and St. Augustine grass were also familiar plants. They had recently cut down three huge hackberry, Celtis laevigata, trees. The stumps were probably 3’-4’ across so they may have been planted about the time the house was built.
The soil in that part of the state is sandy and rocky, mainly limestone, and the buildings and architecture are Spanish influenced. Because of the alkaline soils, even without
Garden angels
much rain native groundcovers and flowers were blooming all over town. I was able to identify a couple of them when, at the end of the trip, I checked off one of my “bucket list” places to visit. While in Goliad we visited the Saturday Farmers Market on the main square of town. Vendors from all over south Texas come to the market on the second Saturday. There were some very tempting items, and we had the best Strawberry lemonades I’ve ever tasted – fresh strawberries mulled with lemons and sugar and topped with razor thin strawberry slices. We also toured the Garden’s Path, a darling nursery which had all the new spring offerings of bedding plants, shrubs, and succulents. The crown jewel is a HUGE live oak which the salesperson said was 900 years old, according to the local history museum is about the same time the Native Americans were starting to use bows and arrows. The tree was a perfect canopy for their plants, pots, and garden angels. Alas, I could only look.
On the last full day of our trip, we drove the rental car back to Austin and met a family friend who is a member of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. And yes, they had blue bonnets blooming (and irrigation). Our visit there was too short to take it all in; the staff do a wonderful job of educational displays, programs, and maintaining the grounds. They used natural wood features and limestone hardscaping as paths and beds. At LBJWC there were so many botanical treasures and great information. I did buy a seed pack of Texas blue bonnets and will be adding a generous amount of limestone to the flower beds if they agree to germinate.
Our spring break had all the necessary ingredients: family, garden angels, lots of plants, great food, and noisy birds.
For more information on the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center visit https://www.wildflower.org
