If you are looking for a plant that blooms nonstop from early summer to fall and requires only a minimum of attention, then verbena is the answer. Verbena will provide an endless display of colorful summer flowers when planted in the sunniest and possibly driest area of your landscaping. This family of tender perennials show off finely cut foliage topped by spectacular clusters of purple, red, white, yellow, orange, or bi-colored blooms. The nectar-rich flowers are also prized by butterflies and hummingbirds. Depending on the variety, verbena will grow 12 to 30 inches in either upright or trailing forms. It is a sun-worshipper that makes a magnificent addition to garden beds, window boxes, or hanging baskets.

Known by numerous names such as Calibrachoa, Million Bells and Mini Petunias, this fairly new species is dazzling and fun plant. The names Million Bells and Mini Petunias comes from the fact that it features hundreds of small, bell-like flowers that resemble miniature petunias. Available in a wide variety of colors form violet, blue, red, magenta, pink, orange, yellow and white, its trailing habit and bountiful flowers makes it perfect for use in hanging baskets, containers or as a small area ground cover. They grow from to 3 to 9 inches tall and will bloom from spring through fall.

The Shrimp plant is very appropriately named. It is easily recognized by the colorful, drooping, shrimp-like bracts it produces, giving a tropical feel to the garden. This easy-to-grow plant can reach two to six feet tall, and the white flower inside the bracts attracts both hummingbirds and butterflies.

Native to tropical Asia, the Tropical Rose Mallow produces bright yellow flowers and deeply lobed leaves growing on tall stems which make this plant the perfect accent to any flower garden. Butterflies and birds are attracted to the Rose Mallow plant and it is drought tolerant, making it perfect for dry areas and xeriscaping with minimal watering required. The plant above ground will freeze but unless there is a lengthy, hard freeze, it will come back year after year.

Native to the canyons of the Southwest, Golden Spur Columbine is one of the most widely adapted of all columbines, which have been grown in gardens for centuries, and are among the most popular of perennials. Hummingbirds will often drop in to sip nectar from the flowers. Golden Spur Columbine features large, bright-yellow flowers over a bushy mound of ferny light-green foliage. A vigorous grower, it combines excellent heat tolerance with a long display of fragrant yellow flowers from spring to late summer. A good rebloomer if promptly deadheaded and makes a great cutting flower.

Known also as Purple Shamrock, False Shamrock and Love Plant, Oxalis is a dainty and elegant plant with three pretty purple heart shaped leaves, which each have three sides that sit symmetrically to one another at the end of every stem. The overall effect is that they end up looking like a trio of butterflies joined together by their noses. It also produces delicate white flowers in profusion. Though certainly beautiful in any outdoor landscape, it also serves well as an office or house plant.

Though its name suggests otherwise, Mexican Honeysuckle, native to Mexico, is not a vine or related to other honeysuckles plants, but a small shrub growing anywhere from 3 - 5" tall yet it is quite easy to see how the visual similarities among Mexican honeysuckle might explain its namesake. Boasting beautiful, brightly colored orange to reddish flowers, Mexican Honeysuckle is a welcome sight to hummingbirds, bees and butterflies alike. They bloom from late spring to fall, but often extend blooms through late winter/early spring depending on the climate.

Dusty miller is an eye-catching landscape addition, grown for its silvery gray foliage. Lacy leaves of the dusty miller plant are attractive companions for many different color blooms in the garden and care is minimal when the plant is established. Although the dusty miller flower blooms in mid-summer, the small yellow blooms are small and not considered necessarily showy but add color nonetheless. As with most silvery, furry plants, growing dusty miller helps the garden remain attractive through the heat of the summer. It can handle the heat but is best planted where afternoon shade is available during the hottest months of summer.

Native to South Africa, Agapanthus, also known as Lily of the Nile or African Lily, are tough, heat and drought tolerant perennials that are perfect for the Central Texas climate. They are such flamboyant and exotic looking perennials that they are hard not to love! Their green foliage serves as a lovely easy-care foundation plant when not in bloom. They are available in purple, blue, white or unique bicolor blooming varieties and are easy to grow and disease and pest free. They are wonderful for mass plantings, landscape borders or in pots and make wonderful cut flowers to bring inside and enjoy.

As its name implies, the Mexica Petunia comes from south of the border and is a beautiful addition to a flowering backyard retreat. It is not a real petunia, but its flower looks like one. As a hardy perennial that is low maintenance and drought resistant, Mexican petunias are one of several desert plants that are recommended for warm, dry climates. Its flower petals are most commonly a vibrant violet color, but they can also be pink or white. Like daylilies, they only bloom once a day, but continuously bloom throughout the summer.

Purple Heart, native to Mexico, is a trailing, tender perennial with beautiful silvery, purple stems and violet-purple leaves that are long and oval shaped and produces delicate pink flowers in the spring and summer. It is mainly grown for its foliage as its leaves can reach about 7 inches in length and can reach a height of 1 to 1 ½ feet tall. Purple heart is wonderful for planting in pots or hanging baskets, and also serves very well as a ground cover.

A favorite for growing with kids, lamb’s ear plant makes attractive addition in nearly any garden setting. This easy-care perennial has velvety soft, wooly evergreen leaves that are silver to gray-green in color. The foliage is also similar in shape to that of a real lamb’s ears, hence its name. If left to bloom in summer, lamb’s ear will produce spikes of pink to purple colored flowers too. In addition to enjoying its attractive, fuzzy foliage, the leaves can be used as a "band-aid" of sorts for healing wounds and in helping painful bee stings.

With its silvery-green foliage and upright fragrant spikes of tiny, delicate flowers, Lavender, an herb with many culinary uses, also makes a stunning addition to gardens, pots, containers and borders while providing beautiful sweeps of color from early summer into fall. It also makes a wonderful addition to floral arrangements for your home both for its color and fragrance as well as sachets and potpourri. With its Mediterranean origin, lavender loves the blazing hot sun and dry soil and can be grown in gardens or pots and containers.

Named after the Greek goddess of the rainbow, irises bring color to the garden in spring and summer. With many different types and colors available, ranging from white to almost black but most common in shades of lavender, purple, white and yellow, there is an iris for nearly every garden. The most common is the bearded variety, named so because of the prominent beard of white in the center of the petal. Iris blossoms make spectacular additions to any bed as well as borders and they make a wonderful contrast to many perennials. Mix several varieties that will provide blooms from early spring through summer. An added bonus is that irises are great attractors of hummingbirds and butterflies.

With dramatic foliage ranging from green to bronze and burgundy to variegated and iris like, long-lasting, showy flowers in red, orange, yellow, pink and cream, canna lilies, or more commonly referred to simply as cannas, are an impressive sight. The sheer size of cannas makes them an excellent choice to add to the background of large planting beds where they can be blended with other large-scale plants. Cannas also work very well in large containers with a mixture of plants where they can serve as the centerpiece for the other plants. Whether you plant one color or mix and match different hues in group plantings, cannas are sure to make a bold statement in landscapes.

The Bicolor Iris, also known as the African Iris, features showy spikes of creamy white, orchid-like flowers with orange overtones and black spots rising above the foliage from mid spring to mid fall. Its attractive, narrow, sword-shaped evergreen leaves create a perfect backdrop for the beautiful blooms that last a day and are quickly replaced with a new one. It typically blooms in bursts of two week intervals with each flower stalk containing several buds on each one. Bicolor Irises will grow to be about 24 inches tall at maturity with a spread of 24 inches. The flowers are excellent for cutting.

As the grand finale of summer starts to wind downs and fall begins to make an appearance, Fall Asters make their big entrance. They add vibrant color to the late summer and autumn landscapes with a daisy-like lavender flowers. Fall Asters are easy to grow and bloom predictably and reliably and can be used in many places such as borders, rock gardens or wildflower gardens. Asters also attract bees and butterflies, providing the pollinators with an important late-season supply of nectar.

A summer garden mainstay for centuries, phlox owes its on-going popularity to its clouds of billowy blooms, easy-care and stately stature. The dainty five-petaled flowers of phlox, available in a wide array of colors from white, red, and lavender to salmon, purple and nearly every shade of pink, is derived from the Greek word for flame. The blooms are packed by the dozens into dense clusters and often have a sweet vanilla-clove fragrance. They establish quickly with full sun and adding just a few phlox will add major color to your landscaping as they are available in a wide variety of colors. The typical bloom period for phlox is late spring through fall and the pollinators love their flowers.

Featuring lacy foliage and numerous jewel-like flowers and native to Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala, Mexican heather, also known as False heather, is a flowering groundcover that produces masses of bright green leaves covered in showy, delicate lavender blooms from spring through fall. Growing up to 18 inches tall, Mexican heather is a tough, drought-tolerant plant loves direct sunlight and thrives in intense heat. It makes a wonderful border or container plant or to line walkways with. As a bonus, the flowers are as attractive to butterflies and other pollinators.

Blue Daze, also referred to as the shaggy dwarf morning-glory or Hawaiian Blue Eyes, is extremely popular because of the intense, true sky-blue color of its flowers. It is a heat and sun-loving, low-spreading, drought tolerant tropical plant that will provide blooms throughout the late spring, summer and fall and performs best in the full sun. The grayish-green foliage serves as a wonderful backdrop for the delicate blue flowers. Blue Daze is perfect as a border, ground cover or as a cascading plant in hanging baskets or containers. The flowers usually close up at night and on cloudy days.

Time for planting fall gardens. Shoal Creek Nursery has broccoli, tomatoes, green beans, zucchini, squash, brussel sprouts, lettuce, cabbage, and many more.

Nothing matches the taste of homegrown vegetables spread across the dinner table. Plus there are many benefits to growing your own vegetables from tomatoes and bell peppers to egg-plant and squash. Easy to grow, fresh vegetables are a central part of a healthy diet. They are loaded with essential nutrients that promote better health, including antioxidants and vitamins. Adding fresh vegetables to your daily diet is the best way to boost your health. And you don’t need a large yard to build a vegetable garden. Even the tiniest slice of space can be transformed into a lush, thriving garden.

Low growth habit makes this an excellent choice for a low border plant. Small, dark green leaves turn a rich, burgundy-red in winter for cool season interest. Adapts to a wide range of cultural conditions and mixes well in almost any landscape. Evergreen.

Native to East, South and Central Texas, growing in shady, well-drained areas along the banks of streams and limestone canyon walls, Turks Cap is a wonderful shrub plant with gorgeous red flowers attractive to butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds. Though it has never been verified, Turk’s cap apparently seems to have received its name by the flower that resembles a fez, the red felt hat formerly worn by Turkish men. The red flowers are perfect for a little burst of color after a good portion of your garden may have stopped flowering.