Rewilding My Lot

When I was new to Seguin, whenever I met a native plant gardener or naturalist, I would ask what was their favorite plant or tree and several of those suggestions are now in my garden here.

One of those early recommendations was Standing Cypress (Ipomopsis rubra). Not only is this a beautiful drought-tolerant plant that attracts hummingbirds and butterflies, but it also has an interesting two-year life cycle.

When Standing Cypress seeds first germinate, they produce a rosette of ferny leaves that form a low mound, and this is the way they stay for the first year. In the second year a tall flower spike develops, which later produces seeds that fall to the ground. And then that particular plant dies, to make way for future generations.

So when I scattered seeds in the fall of 2023, I expected leafy rosettes in 2024 and flowers in 2025. I purchased extra seed to disperse in 2024, so that from that point on I would have a blooming population every year.

That was the plan, but as often happens, nature surprised me! I did indeed get ferny rosettes early in 2024, but then about one-fifth of them decided to proceed to the flowering stage in the same year. That was a bonus I wasn’t expecting, so consequently I now have three phases of Standing Cypress here:

• Plants that bloomed last year. The flower spikes have turned brown, and the foliage either has already or will do the same. Seeds have been released and these plants have finished their lifecycle.

• Plants that grew last year but haven’t bloomed yet. These have clusters of sturdy green leaves and should produce flower spikes to bloom in spring and summer of this year.

• New seedlings. Because I scattered seeds myself last year in addition to what the “bonus” plants produced, I now have hundreds (thousands?) of new Standing Cypress seedlings that are emerging.

So the result of all this activity is that I have an area in the back yard that is likely to produce a spectacular display of Standing Cypress blooms later this year. Last year the blooms that did appear were rather obscured by taller sunflowers that grew around them, but this year I will keep fewer of the sunflowers.