Texas Mountain Laurels

What a wonderful central Texas native!   Dark green, glossy leaves and an irresistable purple bloom in the spring.   I just wish it bloomed longer.  Each trees bloom period is about 2-3 weeks.    The seedpods will contain a dark red, poisonous seed.    The seedcoat is extremely hard; in nature it may take a few years before they sprout.   Here in the nursery, we have our ways to push them along. . . .

Texas mountain laurels have become a hot commodity in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.  They are equally loved in the Rio Grande Valley.  They tolerate many types of soil - just be sure it's well-drained.  Mountain laurel do not like wet feet!   

Once established this is a great Xeriscape plant.  It handles underwatering better than overwatering.

Remnants of Hurricane Dolly

Today, we're harvesting short Texas mountain laurels - ones that are 3 and 4 feet tall.   Most dug really nicely, but this one pulled right out of the ground.  The folliage looks healthy, doesn't it? 

Turn it upside down to get a good look and the roots and you see its problem - there are virtually NO ROOTS! 

Two years ago the mountain laurels in this field were an average of 6 feet tall - then Hurricane Dolly paid us a visit.  Heavy winds battered the trees for hours and nearly half of this field died.  The remainder looked shabby and a bit necrotic.  Every time we had strong winds, the remaining trees stressed.   And Harlingen has strong winds on a pretty regular basis.   We decided a heavy pruning might help.   It's now been 20 months since the hurricane and most of this field have recovered nicely.  - but occassionally, we come across one like this.    I still can't imagine how that root system has been supporting this fairly decent looking little tree.  Go figure.

We were happy to see that after harvesting 40, this was the only one with this problem! 

Lessons from Arbor Day Celebrations

On February 12th, the city of San Benito hosted an Arbor Day celebration at the Cameron County  Fairgrounds.   Jr. Master Gardening students from  one of the elementary schools participated - and learned a little bit along the way.   They learned that when planting a tree, you should dig a hole the same depth and 2-3 times as wide as the rootball.   The planting hole should not be smooth - new roots will not always penetrate a smooth surface, but instead turn and circle its "earthen pot".    One of our customers likes to dig a square hole.  You can always use your shovel to make a jagged surface.

The RootMaker bag is being removed from the rootball. Now all those fibrous roots will really take off!

 

You can see that this tree will be planted too deep!   After this picture, the tree was removed and more dirt placed in the planting hole.   To cover a tree's root flare with even a couple of inches of dirt will cause it to eventually die. 

The city of San Benito was awarded a number of live oaks from our "100 Trees for 100 Years" program.  They are placing two on either side of the entrance to the Cameron County Fairgrounds.  What a welcoming sight they will be in a few years!

Thanks to the city of San Benito along with all the city, chamber and school officials who attended!