8 Ideas for a New Home Gift
As a new homeowner, you probably have all kinds of visions for your new home. Now that it’s sweet summertime, many of those projects probably have to do with your landscaping or yard.
If you’re like our New Home Consultant Ursula Whitworth, you probably spend your evenings, weekends, or days off with your hands in the dirt or picking out a new addition for your home’s landscaping.
Here in Texas we have a lot of direct sunlight and a lot of heat, but that doesn’t mean your lawn has to be dry and crunchy! Ursula is sharing her favorite plants for Texas weather so your yard can be lush and beautiful, too!
Mountain Laurel
- Full sun
- Heat and drought resistant
- Blooms in the spring right around Easter when you’re really ready for flowers
- Smells AMAZING
- Honeybees and butterflies love it
Crepe Myrtle
- Full sun
- Great starter plant
- Long bloom life
Crepe Myrtle is very easy and a great starter plant—once it is established it requires 0 maintenance! I love it because you can let it get big as pictured or keep it smaller. It usually blooms when everything else is too hot; mine blooms for over a month during June-July when all other plants want to curl up and die in the heat!
Knock Out Roses
This rose can take full sun, but it also blooms in partial shade. Their easy maintenance makes them a perfect beginner rose for those who have don’t have a lot of gardening experience. While they do need very little maintenance, they will do best if you cut off the dead blooms and cut them back in the winter. Clip a few gorgeous blooms and bring them inside for a jaw-dropping centerpiece, too!
- Drought resistant
- Heat tolerant
- Blooms off and on until the first freeze
- Comes in many colors
Vitex
- Drought resistant
- Full sun
- Thrives in heat
- Gorgeous purple blooms in the summer
Leave these alone and they will be one giant bush, or trim the bottom like the photo and they look like a small flowering tree.
Personal Recommendation: Plant roses under vitex because the branches are thin enough not to throw too much shade and the multi-level arrangement is stunning.
Asatic Jasmine
- This one can grow in the sun, partial sun, or the shade!
- Perfect ground cover for along boarders or those problem areas in your garden
- Can grow aggressively if you ignore it but it is very easy to maintain and shape with normal edging
Want to grow more? Easy—just clip some of your existing Asiatic Jasmine and plant it wherever you want more in your yard!
Rosemary
- Full sun
- Loves the heat
- Evergreen
- Blooms when everything else is dying mid-summer
- Great for your kitchen and yard!
- Thrives when you ignore it
No matter how grand your plans for your Texas yard, there are all kinds of Texas plant resources to help you map everything out, take proper care of your plants, and more.
Feeling inspired or have other great Texas plant recommendations that do well in your yard? We’d love to hear about what you’re planting this year!
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