Exotic plants, although beautiful, may not be suited to Houston’s climate extremes. They require more maintenance and resources such as water and chemicals to keep them beautiful. Not only is the upkeep expensive, they come at great cost to our environment. The small ornamental Crepe Myrtle trees bloom showy colorful blooms spring to fall all over Houston. The lovely tree is from China originally and is helping to create wildlife dead zones throughout the center of Houston.
Native plants are perfect for native insects as they provide the ideal food and shelter to support life cycles. Native plants full of insects provide native birds and reptiles a food source with shelter close by. Healthy native plants teem with wildlife and increase our biodiversity.
Most of the trees, shrubs, grasses and blooming flowers used by traditional landscapers around homes and businesses are not from Texas. These plants are lovely but many are not able to support the life cycle of the local insects. With fewer insects, birds are not attracted and will seek food and shelter elsewhere driving our native song birds, butterflies, bees, small reptiles out of the landscaped inner city.
Consider replacing your crepe myrtles with a lovely long blooming native Cordia boissieri. The common names are Texas Wild Olive, Mexican Olive or Anuacahuita. These showy small trees have large white blooms year round but bloom more profusely late spring into mid summer. Multiple animal species visit these ever producing trees for the fruit and nectar.
Native Parsley Hawthorn blooms