SAN ANTONIO – It’s April, which is prime time to plant those spring perennials!
Planting in San Antonio is tough because, come summer, we are battling months of consecutive triple digits, extreme drought and deer that gobble everything up in the Hill Country. Then, we have a couple of weeks of freezes in the winter.
But if you plant the right perennials that are native or just plants that thrive despite the weather and that are deer-proof, you can still have a beautiful garden landscape.
You can find prime perennials that will thrive in our South Texas environment at Rainbow Gardens.
Plant these in the front row:
- Blackfoot Daisy — you’ll put her in the front of your beds. She is a low grower and gives flowers almost all year.
- Damianita Daisy is another low-growing, front-row girlie that blooms in late Fall and early Spring.
For the middle row, you’ll want to plant any type of Lantana, Greggs Mist Flower, Milkweed, Copper Canyon Daisy, Salvia Spires or Sage. These are all bloomers that attract pollinators and, once established, will be the backbone of your gardens. These will die back after our first freeze, but it doesn’t mean they are dead. If you cut them back, new growth will shoot up come spring.
You can plant Texas Sage, Esperanzas and Pride of Barbados for the back row or fence line. These can get huge, so plant with lots of space in mind. We are talking at least three feet high and wide. They also give constant color, even in the thick of summer, when nothing else is blooming.
Landscaping a flower bed for the first time can feel overwhelming, especially regarding placement.
If you head to SAWS’s gardenstylesanantonio.com, click on the “How to garden” tab, and then click on the "Plant by numbers" tab, you will find several landscape bed options that tell you exactly how to map out your perennials sorted by light, space and style. It will also give you options of what plants to plant by theme if you can’t make up your mind about what looks good together.