Ask Mr. Smarty Plants

We are familiar with the area of The Woodlands. It is right on the border between two ecoregions: Gulf Coast Prairies and Marshes and Pineywoods.  Follow these links to the pages on those ecoregions, read the description of the soils and climate and you will find characteristics that fit where you are. Using the sidebar on the right side of the page on each, we will search on "shrub" for Habit, both "part shade" (2 to 6 hours of sunlight a day) and "shade" (less than 2 hours of sun a day" under Light Requirements. From those two lists, we will select some suggestions. You can follow each plant link to our webpage on that shrub to discover its expected mature size, what kind of soil it likes (which you should have because of where you are gardening), and how much moisture it requires. We will check that each plant we suggest does appear in the area of Montgomery County.

From the Gulf Coast Prairies  and Marshes List:

Aesculus pavia var. pavia (Scarlet buckeye)

Aloysia gratissima (Whitebrush)

Amorpha fruticosa (Indigo bush)

Calylophus berlandieri ssp. pinifolius (Berlandier's sundrops)

Erythrina herbacea (Coralbean)

Ilex vomitoria (Yaupon)

From the Pineywoods List:

Callicarpa americana (American beautyberry)

Ceanothus americanus (New jersey tea)

Rhus glabra (Smooth sumac)

Symphoricarpos orbiculatus (Coralberry)

Several of these shrubs appear on both lists; we have listed the duplicates only in the first list. You may rerun these searches to see if you can find others that you prefer. If you have difficulty finding your selected shrubs from our database, go to our  National Suppliers Directory, put your town and state or just your zip code in the "Enter Search Location" and you will get a list of native plant nurseries, seed companies and consultants in your general area. They all have contact information so you can inquire as to availability before you start driving.