This time of year, we’re lured like mythological sailors to the sirens’ rocks by catalog photographs of lushly blooming flowers. At garden centers, we’re sorely tempted by bedding plants that have been chemically treated in growers’ greenhouses to ensure a floriferous debut in the retail aisles. The U.S. Department of Agriculture may designate a plant officially suitable for our Zones 7 and 8, but that’s no guarantee that a plant will prosper in North Texas.

We have poor soil, too much water some seasons, too little water other seasons, wild fluctuations in temperatures from October to May and that miserably long stretch of baking, simmering, scorching summer.

Click on the PDF below to read the entire article.