Tom and I were in Texas (not just for Texas plants!) last week for:

1 Day of sitting by the pool at a chic hotel, reading, mojitoing and later getting all the toxins out of our bodies at the Korean Spa.

1 Day of crinum lecturing and seeing THE crinum lady, Marcelle Sheppard. Marcelle is totally self taught, named extraordinary hybrids (google her store!). She now uses a walker outfitted with garden tool bags. And she grows 1 acre of crinums in her yard and keeps her friends in bulb! This generous woman devoted a hot, fun day with lots of oh you should have been here last week garden tour to us!

1 Day of nutritional cleanse meetings. Reviewing the best in plant-based diets for our health & our team – SC Get Healthy! Plant-food makes our bodies better & is easier on the environment.

1 Day of meeting, greeting, and hoping to find some cowboy/cowgirl interns for Moore Farms. This was at Stephen F. Austin University, which has amazing, unsung gardens. Go out of your way to see it! The founder, Dr. David Creech, has introduced tons of plants. Now, he works with Chinese road planners. With long term vision, their massive construction projects INCLUDE a 20 year breeding and selection plan for our native cypress trees. On one single road will account for planting of a billion trees!

Running the gardens near campus are Greg Grant and Dawn Stover. Both great plant-lovers. Watching them interact is sort of like watching a sister and brother – 180 degrees different, 180% effective.

Along the way, we picked up cool Texas plants and were impressed by:

Hibiscus Red River
Lantana Miss Huff sheared into a hedge. Picture above.
Lycoris elsiae
Crinum School Bells
and Aspragus!