Native Plants
Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?
A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.
Did you know you can access the Native Plant Information Network with your web-enabled smartphone?
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
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Tuesday - May 20, 2014
From: Houston, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Invasive Plants, Non-Natives, Problem Plants, Herbs/Forbs
Title: Removal of thistles from Columbus TX
Answered by: Barbara Medford
QUESTION:
I am sorry if you have an answer in FAQs but I could not find it. We recently cleared property near Columbus Texas of many cedars (ash junipers). This spring we experienced a profusion of thistle - big and many. How do we remove them?ANSWER:
It's okay, we can't remember where previous answers are ourselves, even though we answered them ourselves. Begin with this previous answer on thistles in Central Texas. In cases like this, we don't worry about native and non-native, if they are obnoxious, you want to get rid of them. When you get to that answer, you will find another, Native and Non-native Thistles, that we recommend you follow, also, along with any other links. Finally, for the nuts and bolts of thistle removal, Mr. Smarty Plants has addressed this exact question before and, even though this previous answer is from Ohio, it tells you exactly what we would say again, and we are getting lazy. Easier for the same answer to be read twice than for us to type the same answer twice. We do warn you, this is not going to be easy, native or not, these plants take care of themselves.
These solutions are not easy, a lot of hard work is involved but we never promised you a rose garden, did we?
More Invasive Plants Questions
Ligustrums planted last summer are doing poorly in Houston, TX.
March 06, 2012 - I planted large mature ligustrums trees (~ 8 ft) last summer and the leaves are turning yellow and falling off. Can you please tell me what the cause of this might be and what we can do to prevent th...
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Controlling Pickerel weed (Pontederia cordata) in British Columbia
March 10, 2009 - Hello,
I am emailing from the west coast of Canada, Vancouver, and I have a plant question regarding a species you have listed on your website.
We have recently discovered Pontederia cordata L. Pi...
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Non-native, invasive rescue grass in meadow garden in Smithville TX
September 20, 2012 - Despite numerous efforts, a solid field of cool weather rescue grass keeps desired wildflower and grass seeds from successfully growing on my "vacant" lot in town. I plan to I put out a 6 ml plasti...
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Pruning of non-native Senna bicapsularis from Ocean Springs MS
April 04, 2013 - I have 4 Senna plants (cassia bicapsularis) that I planted late last spring. They about 3-4 feet tall but are very gangly with leaves at or near the tips only. How should I prune them to encourage g...
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Non-native, invasive bermudagrass from Memphis TN
August 17, 2012 - I live in central Memphis and have well-drained clay soil. I have converted much of the front yard from turf grass to beds of native plants, which survive our hot humid without supplemental watering e...
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