Natives of Texas

October is Support Your Independent Nursery Month as declared by Pam Penick at her Austin blog Digging.

This week we visit Natives of Texas nursery in Kerrville.  After our stop at Medina Garden Nursery we continued on State Highway 16 about thirty minutes to Kerrville and Natives of Texas nursery.

Natives of Texas was founded on the idea that our Texas Hill Country natives are the best plants to survive the one-two punch of drought and heat of a Texas summer and the subsequent freezing weather of our winters.  Their website shares the wonderful story of this nursery.
The small lake at the entrance was lovely to see and shows we are getting back to normal after our long drought.

The owner's Great Dane announces our arrival as we head between the houses and down to the nursery section at the end of the road.

A good selection of native plants are on display.

Emphasizing the importance of natives -- NICE

A limestone cliff across the nearby creek is quite striking.

There's a pretty garden full of blooms next to the nursery office with Asters, Mexican Bush Sage, and a red salvia.

Roughleaf dogwood planted along the fence in the nursery has beautiful texture and color with white berries

After checking out the selections below the road we walked up the hill to see more trees and nursery plants set out on the stone terraces.

There's a memorial to the founder Betty Streetman Winningham and beautiful views from the top of the hill.

The canyon wall from the top of the hill

 

Looking down over the hill from the terrace.

It's steep up here.

Throughwort or Fragrant Mistflower grows well against a post on this rocky slope



This pipevine on a wire fence sports unique blooms

Native cactus planted in a stump along the trail

 This looks like Damianita growing out of a rock opening in one of the walls

After making our selections we headed down to the house to check out the demonstration gardens.





Native and xeric plants line the drive

Beargrass over the limestone edging

Flaxleaf Bouchea was a new plant for me

The long view of this pretty, low growing flowering plant.

Natural limestone pools like this one define the Texas Hill Country for me.

The gardens surround the house and are enclosed by a rustic cedar fence and arbor.

 

This Mexican Bush Sage added pretty color to the gardens

We worked our way up the hill above the house admiring the well-marked plants along the path.

Mexican Buckeye

 Heartleaf Hibiscus

White Beautyberry under the oaks

Canyon Mock Orange

Directly behind the main house is this native favorite Madrone tree growing out of the hill side offering a closeup view of the bark and berries.

This is a quintessential Texas Hill Country setting and being there was a trip back to the beginnings of the native plant movement in Texas.