The Texas Native Plant Primer by DeLong-Amaya

THE TEXAS NATIVE PLANT PRIMER by Andrea DeLong-Amaya provides valuable information about “225 Plants for an Earth-Friendly Garden.” DeLong-Amaya, the Director of Horticulture who oversees the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center’s gardens and nursery programs, has decades of experience and offers numerous suggestions. The first part of her text defines native plants and discusses growing or using them. One comment which struck me was: “I'm thrilled to have a platform to highlight standard reliable garden workhorses, and with luck, pique some excitement for the lesser knowns of the bunch. Some of these currently allude the trade and I invite you to share your interests and requests with your local growers and garden retailers.” I wish local gardens, as helpful as they try to be, had more reference materials like this one. The photographs of plants and wildlife (including birds, mammals, and hummingbirds) are beautiful.  DeLong-Amaya includes a helpful map showing ten “Vegetational Areas of Texas.” What follows is a series of Plant Profiles with a photo, plus names, size, flowers, duration, light/soil/moisture requirements, habitat/ranges, and wildlife attractions. Those are divided into the following sections: Groundcovers and Turf, Perennials and Annuals, Grasses, Cacti and Other Succulents, Shrubs and Small Trees, Large Trees, and Vines. However, I wish there were more charts and that all of these profiles could be searchable (like the Native Plant Database). Imagine asking for a colorful, flowering, low maintenance plant which grows well in full sun on the Edwards Plateau, attracts pollinators, and tolerates cold. I have planted for the last two years, and did find a page on Silver Ponyfoot (love the name and appearance, but it struggles to winter over), but had to browse through almost all of the entries trying to find lantanas since the index was not provided in the preview. DeLong-Amaya could definitely strengthen this text by providing a sampling of suggested combinations for each of the vegetational areas – her readers would gladly browse the book to learn more and to personalize choices according to their situation. A bibliography is included.