SAN ANTONIO – Haeley Giambalvo grows plants native to Texas in her backyard garden.
“They’ve been growing in the wild on their own for thousands and thousands of years,” Gimabalvo said.
These drought-resistant plants, like esperanza, have adapted to dry conditions and extreme heat. But plants that should be blooming are looking barron this summer season.
“Once we got into several weeks, 100-degree temperatures, things just really kind of shut down a little bit in terms of blooming,” Gimabalvo said. “Once it’s over 100 degrees, like, most plants are going in survival mode, whether they’re native or not. They’re just trying to conserve their resources.”
Giambalvo runs Native Backyards, a blog that teaches people about the benefits of gardening native plants. But even her garden is seeing a dry spell with this weather.
“You have to have that patience,” Gimbalvo said. “They’re going to bounce back the next time we get a good rain.”
And that’s something that Brandon Kirby at Rainbow Gardens said comes with time.
“Once [drought-resistant plants are] established, they tend to take care of themself,” Kirby said. “It’s been exceptionally hot. We’ve had almost no rain this summer. And so it’s really challenging for these plants to survive without irrigation.”
Kirby said it takes about a year of regular watering for a plant to become drought-resistant because it takes time for the roots to establish themselves.
“Once it’s established, it can use less water than something that would need more water,” Kirby said. “We can and do have water issues here in San Antonio and drought-tolerant plants can help mitigate some of that damage that the development has done and the lack of rain, the drought that we’ve experienced the last couple of years.”
This comes as counties across central Texas, not including Bexar, are seeing drought restrictions due to dry conditions.
Kirby said these drought-resistant plants will likely perk up with the next big rainfall or as soon as the fall rolls around.
