Here are the best pink plants for North Texas that you’ll find at garden centers now

It’s one of those colors that transcends the seasons. It’s at home in the spring as we decorate for Easter or perhaps simply look for colors to complement the bright yellows of our spring bulbs and trees. Pink blends right in.

In the summer, pink is cooling. Pink lemonade. Refreshing slices of watermelons on the red side of pink. Pink crape myrtles against the bright summer sky.

Pink is a very useful color when we get ready to landscape, so let me suggest a few of the best pink plants for North Texas. Mind you, there are dozens of others. These are just a few you’ll find in garden centers right now — ripe for the planting.

▪ Supertunias. This one is called ‘Daybreak Charm,’ and once you grow it or any of the other small-flowering hybrids you’re going to be smitten. These things keep throwing out flowers by the dozens, week after week. They’re sprawling plants 8 to 12 inches tall and 24 inches wide. You can feature them both in beds and in large patio pots. They’re tolerant of light frosts, and they’ll stand up to heat well into the summer. Grow them in well-prepared, highly organic planting soil that you can keep evenly moist (never soggy). They do well in full sun, and they’re tolerant of heat, but the plants will hold up better if they have shade from the afternoon sun. They’re annuals, and their lovely flowers are quite attractive to butterflies and hummingbirds — and gardeners! Great plants!

▪ Pink petunias. These are standard “multiflora” petunias. I regret that I don’t have a variety name to share, but you can tell its type by the flower size. Plants with medium-sized blooms like these will produce smaller flowers, but there will be many more of them. They’ll be “self-cleaning,” meaning that they, like the “Supertunias” above, will fold up their own blooms and let the remains fall to the ground. That’s a big positive.

Petunias of all colors are good in beds and containers. They tolerate light frosts (although frost cloths are good), and you want that head start, because hot weather is their enemy. Plant them in well-prepared soil, morning sun and afternoon shade. Be prepared to replace them by early to mid-summer as they wear out. But enjoy their great color all spring.

▪ Pink geraniums. Your great-grandmother grew these plants in the springtime. If she lived in the North, she grew them all summer as well. Here in Texas, however, we use them primarily March through June because they, too, don’t like the heat.

This is a great time to get them started. Because they cost a bit more, and because I want portability, I generally grow my geraniums in pots. That way I can give them the very best potting soil possible. I can also be very aware of how wet that soil is at all times. Geraniums do not fare well in soggy ground. Most importantly, I can move them into protection whenever I need to. Into the garage for late freezes. Into the shade when it starts to get hot.

▪ Pink pentas. When I was a kid down in South Central Texas you either had pentas or you wished that you did. You didn’t see them in nurseries very often — certainly nothing like the frequency you see now. Plus, those that you might rarely find were generally 24 inches tall or taller. Now we have much more compact hybrids in a wide range of colors.

I like pink pentas especially. They’re faithful bloomers that will stay in flower for many months. They’re handsome when planted in front of purple fountaingrass for a nice change in textures and colors. Pentas do well in sun and they like North Texas’ hot weather. They’re tolerant of drought, but it’s still best to protect them from wilting.

The only insect pests I’ve ever seen on my pentas are tersa sphinx moth larvae. I point them out because they are voracious eaters. If you see them starting to feed, if you care to follow my lead, find the larvae and relocate them to some other species of plants some distance away. I’m not into killing larvae of large and attractive moths and butterflies. I’ll leave the alternatives up to you.

▪ Pink Caprice lantanas. This is an old type of shrubby lantana that’s as good as they get. The plants grow to 30 to 36 inches tall and 40 inches wide. They start blooming with the first hot days of May and they continue until late fall. By the time it’s all over, each lantana plant will have served lunch and dinner to hundreds of hummingbirds, butterflies, bees and moths. These things are pollinating machines.

Conventional lantana colors are oranges, yellows, and rusty reds, but pink is available in this and a few other cultivars. There is no spot that is too sunny. There is no spot that is too hot. Those are both assuming that you give your plants steady supplies of water and nitrogen to keep them growing vigorously all season long.

Lantanas are “somewhat perennial” in our area. The upright types tend to survive our winters more dependably than the trailing ones, but even the shrubby ones will freeze out in cold like we’ve had this year and back in 2021. It’s best to clip them back to about 1 inch after the first freeze, then mulch over the clumps with shredded tree leaves.

▪ Pink polka dot plant. Oh, this baby is just made for this story! This used to be an oddball little plant that showed up in eclectic collections, but breeders have worked hard in recent years to bring us stronger colors with brighter variegation (white included). Today you’ll find some delightful blends that mix well with the flowers we’ve been listing in the rest of this story. These plants are great for fillers in pots and even in small spots in beds.

This story was originally published March 7, 2025 at 6:00 AM.