Flowering Shrubs that Adore the Brutal Climate of Central Texas

PLUMBAGO! This plant is low to the ground, generally, usually a foot or two high only. Plumbago loves the heat the sun the drought the shade. Plumbago LOVES TEXAS!

Typically, one one’s BLOG one posts pictures of blooms that are happening in real time, so I want to stress that these are pictures from last summer. But the time to PLANT these blooming shrubs is coming up, so I thought as an assist to gardening readers I would post about them NOW.

Plumbago is available at every nursery in town all year round, because damn, does this plant ever like it here! You can literally plant it anytime, though it is best to wait until after the January freezes (it looks like we are going to get a freeze tonight, as a matter of fact.)

Pride of Barbados will TAKE OVER YOUR FLOWERBEDS if you let it, it propagates like crazy. All you have to do, though, is pull up any unwanted babies, they pull right out off the ground.

PRIDE OF BARBADOS grows to be 4 to 5 feet tall, but its branches are thin and its leaves tiny, so it doesn't shade other flowers out that are planted nearby

Both of these plants die back in a freeze, and grow out again from the roots in the spring, which is AWESOME because that way they kind of stay the same size from year to year once they get reasonably big. So you can still plant zinnias and poppies, etc, around them and get the full effect of many colors. Also the red and orange of the Pride of Barbados contrasts beautifully with the pale blue of the Plumbago.