Weekend Gardener: Texas Mountain Laurel

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) - With the current heat, you probably don’t want to work too hard in your yard.

The experts at Texas A&M AgriLife have a trick you can use now to start growing your own Texas Mountain Laurel without the usual extra steps needed.

“You can actually start these yourself from seed,” said Tim Hartmann. “The only problem with these is if you’ve ever tried, you may know that these seed are incredibly hard. So people will take a grinder or even sulfuric acid to break this hard seed coat. It’s a lot of work, but a little trick I’ll pass on to you is that there was some research done here at Texas A&M that found that you can take the seed, and if you get it around July 4th and plant them, they’ll be kind of pink and soft. They’ll be mature but they won’t have this hard seed coat. They will come right up and you can skip all those hard treatments.”

Hartmann said the plant and flowers typically grow within three to four years from seed.

Copyright 2022 KBTX. All rights reserved.