Native plants work with nature to create eye-catching landscapes and wildlife habitats without all the fuss of adapting a plant to your conditions.
Take azaleas in Dallas. They need the climate and soils of East Texas – more rain and acidic, sandy loam soils. Azaleas can grow in North Texas if you amend the soil with peat moss (harvested from peat bogs in Canada), fertilize with acidic fertilizers, and then water more often than you would a native plant. All this adds up to more impact on ecosystems.
Texas native plants, suited to our soil and climate, need no exotic amendments or special fertilizers. Once established, natives also need little to no municipal water as most can survive on rainfall alone.