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Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?
A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers Nan Hampton, Jimmy Mills and Barbara Medford to be the culpable and capable parties. Yet, others think staff members Damon Waitt, Joe Marcus and Philip Hawkins might play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.
Plant Identification
Need help with a plant ID? Send us an email following the instructions below.
1. Tell us where and when you found the plant and describe the site where it occurred.
2. Take several images including details of leaves, stems, flowers, fruit, and the overall plant.
3. Save images in JPEG format, not more than 640 x 480 pixels in size, with resolution set at 300 pixels per inch.
4. Send email with images attached to smartyplants@wildflower.org. Put Plant Identification Request in the subject line of your email.
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants
Ever wondered what the best flowers and plants are for your garden? Do you want to start a water garden but don't know how? Want to stop your neighbor from mowing your wildflowers? Help is just a click away! Search our extensive database of frequently asked questions - and their answers!
Can't find the answer in our existing FAQs, submit a question to Mr. Smarty Plants.
Most recently answered
Mountain laurel with new leaves or new seed pods
May 11, 2008
Each spring, my Texas Mountain Laurel seems to put new leaves only on selected branches (actually trunks), and put on seed pods on other trunks. It seems to be mutually exclusive: trunks with new seed...
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Plant identification
May 11, 2008
Can you identify a plant in a shady part of our yard. I have a pictrure I would like to send and I don't see a way to do that here. Can you provide that assistance? Perhaps a direct email address so ...
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Identification of red and black insects on Yucca
May 10, 2008
I have little red and black insects on my soft leaf yucca and I don't know what they are or how to get rid of them. They make the leaves rusty looking. Do you have any idea what they are or how I can...
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Plants for pool area in Florida
May 09, 2008
My husband and I have a pool with 4 planters and are looking for plants that we can put into our screened in pool area. We live in Central Florida and looking for ideas of plants that are slow growin...
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Leaf-cutter ants on non-native crape myrtle
May 08, 2008
We have a problem with cutter ants. I lose my entire Crepe Myrtle tree every year. All of the pest control personnel I ask do not have a solution. Can you please suggest something to eradicate thes...
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Groundcover for sun/part shade in Austin
May 07, 2008
I live in Southwest Austin and I have a small backyard that has part sun/part shade. I have no grass in the backyard and my soil is not the healthiest, so I would like to plant some groundcover versus...
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Autumn flowering Texas wildflowers
May 07, 2008
Where might I get a list of autumn flowering Texas wildflowers?
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Healthy black walnut trees from volunteer saplings
May 07, 2008
We just purchased a piece of property in the Texas Hill Country. There is a stump of a large black walnut tree that has four healthy looking samplings shooting up. Each is about 10 feet high. The o...
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