Over time, I plan to reduce the area occupied by annual plants as perennials grow larger or are added. Two new additions to the garden that are doing well are Esperanza (Tecoma stans) and Kidneywood (Eysenhardtia texana). These were both chosen to be drought-resistant and to attract pollinators.
Esperanza ‘Compact Orange’
The more common versions of Esperanza have yellow trumpet-shaped blooms and can be up to 8 ft tall. There are already a lot of plants here that are yellow (e.g., sunflowers), and I have limited space. I therefore chose a smaller orange variety.
I am normally wary of cultivars, because sometimes they can end up not being as useful to wildlife as the original. However, from a supplier (Ecosystem Regeneration Artisans) and seller (Pollinatives) that I trust, I acquired a variant of Esperanza called ‘Compact Orange’ that has an estimated mature height of 4 ft.
This was planted in spring this year and it has settled in well. Normally the best time to plant in Central Texas is the fall because of our brutally hot summers. However, sometimes plants that are fall bloomers do better planted in the spring so that they are ready to bloom in their first year and stronger for their first winter. This one is already more than 3 ft tall and has many pretty blooms that are visited by pollinators and hummingbirds.
Kidneywood
Kidneywood is an aromatic shrub that could grow to a height of 10-15 ft. I planted mine in fall last year and it already almost 5 ft tall. It naturally has a multi-branched structure that could be very bushy, but I plan to keep it trimmed into more of a tree-like form because I have limited horizontal space.
As a member of the legume family, Kidneywoods also perform the useful service of fixing atmospheric nitrogen (with the help of symbiotic bacteria) into a form that stays in the ground.
The blooms on the Kidneywood are not so showy for humans, but they do smell nice and in reality I got this tree to serve insects!
Here is a Kidneywood bloom in mid-August.
By mid-September it had many more blooms.
And here’s the back end of a Blue-Winged Wasp (Scolia dubia) enjoying the Kidneywood. This solitary wasp has blue wings and a brown abdomen.
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