Superstar plants can really enhance your Texas garden

Published 1:10 am Thursday, January 24, 2019

If you are a gardener and haven’t become acquainted with the Texas Superstar Program, you are in for a real treat.

Master Gardeners from across the state gathered in Tyler to learn about Texas Superstars through a Superstar advanced training program. The course was taught over three days and featured speakers who are leaders in horticulture, many of whom were instrumental in starting the Texas Superstar program and are responsible for its success.

Participants had the opportunity to visit a grower, a wholesale nursery and a retail nursery to see just how these Superstars get from selection to the retail marketplace. The advanced training program was sponsored by Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Master Gardener Association and hosted by the Smith County Master Gardener Association.

So, what is a Texas Superstar plant?

Texas Superstars are plants that are carefully selected for the potential to be successful in the wide variety of tough growing conditions in Texas. Every plant that is selected for testing goes through several years of field trials in multiple areas of Texas before becoming eligible to be a Superstar. The most successful plants from the field trials are selected by a panel of experts to earn the Texas Superstar designation. These plants then go into production by commercial growers to get them into retail nurseries for consumers. This cycle of nomination, selection, testing, production and marketing gets the best of the best into retail garden centers for your own landscape. Texas Superstars, like so many things that look simple on the surface, are products of years of work and collaboration. The Superstar program has named more than 60 plants that grow well in most of Texas and successfully gotten them to the home garden, and there are many more to come. Ask about these plants in your retail nursery and enjoy great success in your garden by planting Texas Superstars.

The Texas Superstars that have been introduced since the inception of the program in the 1980s include annuals, perennials, per-annuals (tropical perennials used as annuals), woody shrubs, trees and specialty plants. The following are a few examples, and all are described in detail at TexasSuperstar.com.

MARI-MUM (TAGETES ERECTA CULTIVARS)

Mari–mum is the concept of using large–flowered hybrid marigolds in place of chrysanthemums in the landscape. These plants have blooms with similar floral appearance to chrysanthemums, providing a punch of color just when the fading garden needs it. The flowers last two to three times longer than chrysanthemums, are inexpensive and don’t require the constant pinching and pruning. By planting mari–mums in the cooler temperatures of late August to early September, spider mite pressure is greatly reduced. Transplant these fall annuals in containers or in landscape beds to provide outstanding color until late in the season. Mari–mums need a sunny spot with well–drained soil. Incorporate organic matter and fertilizer as needed.

‘NATCHEZ’ BLACKBERRY (RUBUS FRUTICOSUS ‘NATCHEZ’)

Natchez blackberry is a thornless cultivar released by the University of Arkansas. It is a trailing plant that produces an abundance of large, elongated fruit. The fruit is the largest produced by a thornless cultivar. Fruit quality is firm and outstanding and could be a commercial variety.

VITEX, TEXAS LILAC OR CHASTE TREE (VITEX AGNUS–CASTUS)

Deciduous large shrub or small tree with distinctive palmately compound leaves. Profuse spikes of lavender flowers, blooming heavily in the early summer, and then sporadically throughout the summer and fall. Vitex is heat, drought and pest tolerant. Texas Lilac is our group designation for several recommended cultivars including Montrose Purple, LeCompte and Shoal Creek, all of which are considered Texas Superstars.

For more information on these and all of the Texas Superstars, check out TexasSuperstar.com online, and visit your favorite retail nursery to ask about the Texas Superstars.