Winter Plants of Interest at the TAMU Horticultural Gardens and Field Laboratory, by Dr. William C. Welch

Winter Plants of Interest at the
TAMU Horticultural Gardens & Field Laboratory
By Dr. William C. Welch, Professor and Landscape Horticulturist

The TAMU horticultural gardens at College Station (Zone 8-b) has had several light frosts by the middle of December, but many plants are still performing well. The VIP petunias are still covered with bloom, and pinks, pansies, snapdragons, stock, cyclamen, flowering cabbage and kale, and alyssum are coming into their own. Lobelia will continue to add its special blue colors to the garden until the event of a bad freeze. Wood violets are already blooming. Russelia equisetiformis (Fountain Plant) and Hymenoxys (Four Nerve Daisy), planted in a well-drained area in the dry garden, continue to produce showy blooms. Shrubs such as Turk’s Cap will flower until hard frost, and the Australian spotted emu bush (Eremophila maculata) and Cassia splendida are well worth a second look.

This article appeared in the January/February issue of Lawn and Garden Update, edited by Drs. William C. Welch and Douglas F. Welsh, and produced by Extension Horticulture, Texas Agricultural Extension Service, The Texas A&M University System, College Station, Texas.

Web page construction by Jill Stavenhagen.