Nature chose her favorites…

By the end of summer, I was feeling pretty confident about my tropical plant and “pretty flower” selections.

James, meanwhile, remained quietly loyal to his native plants while I continued trying to create what can best be described as a Gulf Coast resort with an identity crisis.

Then winter happened. To be fair, “winter” on the Texas Gulf Coast usually lasts somewhere between 36 and 48 hours, immediately followed by 100% humidity and mosquitoes, so I felt pretty confident in my tropical plant choices.

OK, I may be slightly exaggerating, but… come on!!

Nature conducted an experiment… and I lost…

⤊ Selected for Elimination ⤊

And the native plants? They just carried on like winter was a minor inconvenience.

Apparently, they didn’t get the memo.

While I was mourning tropical casualties and moving potted plants into the greenhouse like an emergency evacuation team, the natives stayed unbothered.

Prior to our little “48-hour botanical apocalypse,” I still thought native landscaping was something you added around the edges while trying to keep tropical plants alive in a climate that clearly had other plans!

But watching the natives survive — and in some cases actually thrive — while everything else struggled?… well, it started changing the way I looked at the landscape entirely.

That was probably the moment I started realizing James might actually know what he was talking about!

By spring, we weren’t just planting for appearance anymore.

We were planting with purpose. 🌿

Continue the story… Granite Distribution 🐾