The dates are set: April 11-13, 2025, for the annual Rio Grande Valley Home & Garden show in McAllen.
It’s a chapter booth opportunity and massive plant sale. Committee Chair Robert Hernandez will make the formal announcement at the January chapter meeting, January 20, 2025. Also in January, he will introduce this fun volunteer opportunity to the New Class members.
In the meantime, here’s what you can do.
I checked my phone app, the weather looks great through the month of January 2025 – sunny 70s and 80s. Perfect time to get out in your yard and chase away any post-holiday slump, stress, boredom or exhaustion. How, you ask? By digging up plants and potting them for the chapter plant sale at the April H&G show.
Anyone who got American basketflower (Plectocephalus americanus) seeds from me at a chapter meeting this summer, if you planted the seeds, you may have plants already coming up. Plants from my summer crop are already up and looking healthy. Here’s what the new growth looks like.
Below from left, American basketflower seed pod with seeds; the basket of the flower, which gives it its name; and a Gulf fritillary butterfly on American basketflower. (Photos by Anita Westervelt)
If you have yet to plant those seeds, do so now. Clear a patch of ground, broadcast the seeds onto the soil, pat them all down with your hands. Water them gently and leave them. Consider what nature would do. For instance, those seeds that fell from my summer plants have been left to their own devices – and the elements – with no special attention from me. They've encountered heat, humidity, drought, a few rain events.
Do the same as above if you acquired sacred datura (Datura wrightii) seeds, too. Plant those now.
Alternately, plant them in pots. Take a typical one-gallon plastic plant pot, fill it with soil, scatter a few seeds on top, cover them with a dusting of soil, pat them down and water. As the seeds sprout, eventually keep the sturdiest one or divide the other healthy ones into other pots.
Another plant coming up now that can be dug up and potted is pink mint (Stachys drummondii). If you purchased a pink mint plant from the sale last year and planted it, it would have disappeared with the summer heat. The good news is, they spread via roots and readily reseed themselves, so be on the lookout for these soft looking leaf groups.
Scarlet (tropical) sage (Salvia coccinea) will have been self-propagating throughout the summer. They have a small root base which makes them easy and successful to pot up. They are a popular item at the Home & Garden show. The plants are hardy but the leaves may look blackened and dry during the winter, but the plant is still good for potting up. This plant will bloom during winter.
If you have a snapdragon vine (Maurandya antirrhiniflora), check around; you’ll probably find a couple of delicate vines of small heart-shaped green leaves sprouting up somewhere in your yard. I have a couple of them coming up with the American basketflower plants. One is just coming up at the base of the birdbath in the photo below.
Once you pot up new growth plants they will need to be cared for and possibly protected if a freeze is expected. I keep mine close to the garage where I won’t neglect them; they need watering occasionally, and I can put them in the garage if a freeze is predicted. They are native plants, yes, and would survive in the ground. In pots, their developing root system doesn't have a lot of soil protection in a small pot and will need to be protected from severe cold.
The chapter committee for the H&G Show will begin meeting in January for preliminary planning. This year's theme is Big Bloom. One of the conditions for our chapter to be able to have gratis booth space at this huge event is because chapter members give presentations to the visiting public during the three day event. Chapter members who would like to give a 30 minute presentation, please contact Robert Hernandez. Presentations would be about home gardening with native (blooming) plants.
It's always a fun and active chapter event. Mark the dates! April 11-13, 2025.
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