Regional Picks: Tough Roadside Plants – Southern Plains

1. Crape Myrtle

Name:Lagerstroemia indicacvs.

USDA Hardiness Zones:7 to 9

Size:8 to 30 feet tall and 6 to 15 human foot wide

Conditions : Full sun ; average soil ; drouth large-minded

Gracefully delineate highway medians and busy avenue , crepe myrtles prosper in our hot , humid summers and mild winters . In summertime , the tree are spread over with lilac , white , or watermelon - colored blooms , which expect like crinkled tissue paper paper . parting blaze yellow or orangish in autumn , then fell to reveal powerful tan ramification and exfoliate barque . This plant shrugs off drouth and neglect , but it call for occasional sucker pruning and limbing up into tree form .

2. Texas Bluebonnet

Name:Lupinus texensis

zone : Annual

Size:1 to 2 groundwork marvelous and 1 to3 feet broad

Conditions : Full sun ; gravelly , well - drain grease ; drouth tolerant

In spring , Texas bluebonnet turns highway shoulders and airfield into lake of cobalt blue air . It ’s sluttish to initiate your own sensational sight from seed . Sow in unmulched , gravelly soil in late summer to early fall ; for best results , scarify and soak the seeds first . Once established , plants will reliably reseed every year . This plant life prosper in poor soil .

3. Texas Sotol

Name:Dasylirion texanum

Zones:7 to 11

Size:3 to 4 feet grandiloquent and wide

experimental condition : Full sun to partial shade ; well - drained , gravelly soil ; drought tolerant

Texas sotol shimmers when sunlight filters through its sphere of strappy , saw - toothed , evergreen leaves . Enhance this effect by planting it where it will be backlit by the rising or setting sunshine . This tough southwestern native is architectural and eye - get along a busy road . But situate it well aside from sidewalks as the toothy leaves can easily snag wearing apparel and bare skin . In summer , a 10 - foot - tall bloom stalk towers over ripe flora .

4. Mexican Feathergrass

Name:Stipa tenuissima

Size:1 to 2 human foot tall and wide

stipulation : Full sun to fond shadowiness ; well - drained ground ; drought tolerant but may go dormant in very dry summertime

With a svelte walkover and a flip of its feathery blond mane , this knee - high clumping grass will win you over . Bright green spring growth is crest with silvery to tawny gold through summer . A western exposure is specially entrancing as the light-haired waves incandesce in even light . Mexican feathergrass ego - sows and will quickly fill in gravelly roadside area , but undesirable seedlings are easily plucked after a rainwater .

Pam Penick is a couturier and garden coach in Austin , Texas , who apportion her gardening expertness on her web log , Digging .

photo : ( 1 and 4 ) , Michelle Gervais ; ( 2 and 3 ) , courtesy of Pam Penick

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Regional Picks: Tough Roadside Plants - Northeast

Regional Picks: Tough Roadside Plants - Southeast

Regional Picks: Tough Roadside Plants - Midwest

Regional Picks: Tough Roadside Plants—Southwest

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