Houston's favorite garden center devoted to Texas native plants and organic gardening.
by Scott Hill With the Houston summer comes every gardener’s nemesis: mosquitos. You’ve tried spraying and putting up traps, but it’s not enough. You wonder if there are more natural ways to ensure these pesky bugs don’t come for you while you’re planting and tending to your yard. Here are a few methods for repelling […]
August: Yep, it’s hot and humid. It’s also probably not when gardening is front and center on your mind. But experienced gardeners know that August is the perfect time to start planning and plotting for the fall garden. If you don’t start now, it’s easy to get sucked into back-to-school and other fall events; before […]
When choosing plants for your garden, it’s always important to consider the pollinators. We depend on pollinators like bees, butterflies and bats for much of the food we eat, clothes we wear and even the houses we live in. Providing nectar and pollen in your garden for a variety of pollinators is not only a […]
You might have noticed that with the arrival of fall that one of our very best Texas native plants has started putting on its best show. American beautyberry, Callicarpa sp, is best known for its fantastic display of fall berries; most often in a stunning shade of purple. Beautyberry is an excellent native for Houston […]
You know the phrase “good fences make good neighbors”? Well, we couldn’t agree more! But what do you do when there is no fence or the fence is unsightly? Privacy screening shrubs to the rescue! Here at Buchanan’s, we think that living plants can make the best fences. Now through fall and winter is an […]
When you ask us here at Buchanan’s to come up with something negative about Esperanza, you just might find us speechless for a change! We can’t think of anything we don’t love about this beautiful group of plants. Right now, we have a great selection of different Esperanza (Tecoma stans) varieties in colors ranging from […]
Gingers are a real treasure here in Houston summer gardens. Gingers we grow here can range from large specimen plants to short ground covers and offer up a variety of bloom colors and fragrance. While there are too many types of ginger for us to highlight here, we thought we’d share a few of our […]
In our hot Houston climate, it’s important to plant shade trees to cool our homes and landscapes. But once those shade trees develop, we may find ourselves struggling to maintain sun-loving plants in a now-shady garden. It can sometimes feel like there aren’t as many options available to us for the shade garden, but here […]
If you love the color blue…and you love butterflies, then we have the perfect plant for you! Plumbago auriculata, also known commonly as Blue Plumbago, Cape Plumbago, Cape Leadwort and Skyflower, is a root-hardy perennial in our Houston gardens. This small rambling shrub offers up a bounty of blue flower clusters irresistible to both butterflies […]
What to plant now By now, you’re probably starting to enjoy harvests of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and more from your veggie garden. Did you know that you can seed another round of summer vegetables into the garden in June? Large-seeded varieties like squash, zucchini, pumpkins, eggplant, beans, okra, and cucumbers love warm temperatures and will […]
As summer approaches, so does a bounty of blue and purple-flowering summer perennials and annuals, such as salvia, scabiosa and scaevola. Plants that flower in the purple color range attract butterflies to the garden, making for a lively show. But purple is not just for herbaceous perennials and annuals: One of our favorite blooming trees […]
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