Garden Success — Postcards from Abilene: Drought-Tolerant Natives & Backyard Q&A

This week on Garden Success, host Stephen Brueggerhoff returns from a Texas County Agricultural Agents Association conference in Abilene with a suitcase full of plant inspiration from "cow country." He shares a personal-history detour — from Sam Houston State to the City of Houston Parks Department to a botanical program in Seattle to a full-circle stint at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center — before diving into the drought-tough natives he spotted around the Abilene convention center and on a field trip to the 5,000-acre Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch. The plant rundown is a highlight: Turk's cap and its hibiscus-family flower anatomy, hummingbird-magnet autumn sage, pastel-pink rock rose, and three silver-leaved ground covers — silver pony foot (including the cultivated "Silver Falls" selection), woolly stemodia, and their trade-offs around drainage, aggressiveness, and pet-proofing your beds. Mesquite as a street tree turns out to be an Abilene surprise worth talking about too. Back home, Stephen works through listener correspondence: Alison's struggling redbud tree, diagnosed as a case of oversaturated soil and superficial mycelium rather than disease, and JD's Asian persimmon client dealing with minor marginal leaf necrosis. Along the way: a primer on parthenocarpic (seedless) Asian persimmon varieties, a sugar-light almond fig cake recipe offer, and a reminder to use free tools like Be Water Smart to avoid overwatering Brazos Valley's notoriously clay-heavy soil. Plus, a full rundown of what's coming up locally: Birding 101 at Lick Creek Park (Aug 1), a hummingbird program at Martha's Bloomers and a native seed-saving seminar at the Gary Halter Nature Center (both Aug 6), and fall vegetable gardening at the Bryan library (Aug 15).