On Sun, 20 Mar 2005 20:24:29 GMT, jOhN
wrote:

I recently read there are 4000 wildflower varieties in Texas. Of course,
many of them are not suited for Central Texas.

The number usually mentioned is "almost 5,000 species of vascular
plants" and thus would include lots of things not considered wild
flowers. But that would still add up to a whole lot. These are of
course spread out across a really diverse series of landscapes - from
alpine to (almost) tropical. Areas with less than 8" annual rainfall
to those with nearly 60" of annual rainfall.

But even then, you can imagine that Austin is "native" to a thousand
or more plant species and numerous hundreds of those would be
attractive enough to include in your landscape. So it is a matter of
logistics as to how many of those are down at your local plant
nursery. Up until about 20 years ago, very few true native species
were commercially available. So the plant materials industry has come
a long way.

Rusty Mase