Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Written by Christi Covington Friday, 11 April 2008

If one of the world’s greatest storms destroyed all the native plants in Central Texas, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center has a back-up plan.

Staff and volunteers have collected enough seed to protect more than 100 different species, in partnership with the Millennium Seed Bank Project. It is a long-standing program because each plant requires 10,000 to 20,000 seeds for a complete collection. Half of the harvest goes to England, a quarter goes to a seed bank in Fort Collins, Colo. and the rest stay in-house.

It is one of the many research and conservation projects conducted at the center. As executive director Susan Rieff describes, the Wildflower Center is about more than beautification—it is about preservation. That is part of the mission that founder Lady Bird Johnson envisioned, Rieff said.

“She was ahead of her time,” Rieff said. “She saw the need, before other people awakened, that we needed to protect the landscape.”

Johnson and actress Helen Hayes began the nonprofit organization in the 1980s in an effort to promote native landscaping. The original Wildflower Center site was near where the Austin Bergstrom International Airport is today. It soon became apparent that the facilities were not designed to accommodate visitors. That did not stop anyone from coming. So by 1995, the existing site was built near the terminus of Loop 1.

Now the center has expanded to almost 300 acres. Tourists and botanists fill the trails and gardens, with around 70 percent of visitors coming in the three months of spring when the wildflowers are in bloom. Numerous plots and trails feature different aspects of native growth, including a hummingbird garden, a West Texas plot, a homeowner’s inspiration plot and a butterfly garden.

The center has other projects on the horizon, including a 4-acre children’s garden. It will have attractions such as a giant bird nest where young visitors can climb, a metamorphosis maze of tall grass that shows the life development of a frog and butterfly and a cave for exploration. Inside the grotto, shiny tile art will give the impression of standing in a shiny geode.

During the next two to three years—and maybe even sooner—Rieff would also like to open a 15-acre Texas Arboretum, which will eventually include most of the state’s native trees with an emphasis on oaks.

However, while the gardens are an important aspect of the center, research is a cornerstone. Rieff is quick to describe numerous, ongoing programs, such as the one to develop standards for large-scale landscape. A building may be certified as an officially “green” development, but the landscape will not have to meet similar requirements.

For instance, she said a flat space will be planted with St. Augustine grass, which requires more water and chemicals to sustain it because it is not a native plant. That is something she wants to see change with the help of the center.

It is these types of projects that fulfill the nonprofit’s original purpose, Rieff said. For Lady Bird, the center was about more than pretty flowers, although no one can deny the former first lady enjoyed those that grew in the Hill Country. It was an effort to protect the natural environment.

“We are still driven by [Lady Bird’s] words and her vision,” Rieff said. “She thought Texas ought to look like Texas, California like California and the East Coast like the East Coast. She valued the difference in flora and thought it was important to a sense of heritage.”

Wildflower Watch

Local flora: where and when it blooms

Goldenwave

Where to look: Moist areas, meadows

When to look: April-June

Photo by Joseph A. Marcus

Winecup

Where to look: Dry prairies, grassy slopes, open woods, rocky soil

When to look: April-August

Photo by Mrs. WD Bransford

Bull nettle

Where to look: Open woods, fields

When to look: March-July

Photo by Joseph A. Marcus

All photos courtesy of Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, 4801 La Crosse Ave., 232-0100, Mon.-Sun. 9-5:30 p.m. (In April)