Texas Native Plants
Texas Native Plants
It’s no secret that we love Texas native plants at Buchanan’s. In fact, they’ve been our passion since 1986.
Texas Natives are much more than a beautiful addition to your landscape. They are an investment in our local ecosystem, especially when the habitat is heavily damaged. Native plants also help keep soil in healthy balance by reducing erosion and aiding in drainage. Offering benefits like these, native plant ecosystem benefits are far greater than expected.
On top of their ecosystem benefits, Texas native plants are often brightly colored, with red, orange, yellow, and purple flowers. These plants are excellent choices for the garden because their foliage is among the top choices for ornamental beauty in our region.
Full Sun Native Plants
Texas Native Plant Week is every 3rd week of October! If you have ever wanted to start growing Texas natives and your garden gets at least 6 or more hours of direct sun, you have a ton of options like annuals – bluebonnets and Phlox drummondii.
Add height and pollinators to your garden with Texas star hibiscus or yellow bells esperanza. These plants are an easy start to your native habitat and all of them have gorgeous blooms!
Learn more about some of our favorite native plants in our blog post here.
Texas Native Trees
Ever wanted to enjoy the outdoors, but need a break from the heat? Then it might be time to add a native shade tree to the garden!
Trees not only provide shade, but vegetation for creatures like birds and butterflies. Not to mention their minimal maintenance make them an easy choice in the garden. Some favorites like – Texas kidneywood, black gum, Texas redbuds and roughleaf dogwoods are especially useful trees to add to your garden to keep your soil flourishing.
Explore our shade trees page here.
Find other helpful resources. here including the Texas Tree Selector
Barbados Cherry Tree 
Texas Redbud 
Nuttal Oak 
Bald Cypress 
Texas Kidneywood 
Burr Oak 
Southern Magnolia 
Texas Olive Tree Native Shade Perennials
Have a shady spot in the garden?
These plants are made in the shade! Celebrate Texas Native Plant Week by adding some tried and true favorites like American beautyberry, inland sea oats, and turk’s cap to your garden. Many of our native shade loving perennials are the life-support system for our butterflies, bees, and birds.
Adding these lush plants make gardening in the shade a breeze.
Harris County Natives
Encouraging new gardeners to go native is a passion and there is not anything more local than our Harris County native plant table! These plants have many benefits including helping with erosion control, being clay specialists and nectar sources to some of our most crucial pollinators.
Some frequent visitors to this table include grasses like gulf coast muhly and little bluestem. While blooming favorites like carolina jessamine and fall aster are great nectar sources. Each of these valuable plants create a healthy ecosystem in a Houston garden.
Going Native
Native plants. The term has different meanings for different gardeners. There are Texas natives, US natives and those plants that act like natives. All in all, what most of us want in our garden are low maintenance plants that are attractive and functional. Plants that are not invasive and are a benefit to wildlife. When you plant a garden, it is not just for you – it is a habitat for all living things around you. So with that in mind, here is our list of 10 native plants for Houston that do just that. Many are heat and drought tolerant – cheerfully returning year after year in your garden. Click here to learn more.
Top 10 Native Plants for Houston
Eastern Purple Coneflower 
Black-Eyed Susan 
Inland Sea Oats 
Southern Wax Myrtle 
Pride of Houston Yaupon Holly 
Texas Lantana Texas Olive 
Autumn Sage 
Gulf Coast Muhly 
Turk’s Cap Explore Native Plants
