“My heart found its home long ago in the beauty, mystery, order and disorder of the flowering earth.” — Lady Bird Johnson
Please enjoy these images of early spring blooms and wildlife at the Wildflower Center, along with some special quotes by Lady Bird herself. A week ago Friday, fellow blogger Carole Brown of Beautiful Wildlife Garden and Ecosystem Gardening joined me for a special tour given by our friend Kelley, who has volunteered at the WFC for many years. Thank you, Kelley. It was wonderful. And we followed up our visit with a delicious Tex-Mex lunch — mmmmm.
Carolina Jessamine…
Black Swallowtail…
Spiderwort, with Agave…
“Though the word beautification makes the concept sound merely cosmetic, it involves much more: clean water, clean air, clean roadsides, safe waste disposal, and preservation of valued old landmarks as well as great parks and wilderness areas. To me… beautification means our total concern for the physical and human quality we pass on to our children and the future.” — Lady Bird Johnson
Red-Eared Slider…
Goldeneye Phlox…
Golden Groundsel…
Skulls in a West Texas desert bed…
Mexican Plum…
Texas Bluebonnets, of course…
“We have impressive and valid reasons for using our native plants — reasons of the soul and pocketbook.” — Lady Bird Johnson
Coral Honeysuckle, on a trellis I aim to copy…
The first winecup…
Possumhaw, still showing off its winter berries…
Plant sale preparation…
Redbud…
“My special cause, the one that alerts my interest and quickens the pace of my life, is to preserve the wildflowers and native plants that define the regions of our land — to encourage and promote their use in appropriate areas and thus help pass on to generation in waiting the quiet joys and satisfactions I have known since my childhood.” — Lady Bird Johnson
Lady Bird’s message and purpose continues to touch my heart and soul. What a gift she has given us, with a call for us to do more.
I enjoy your photos. I like the angle that you took them especially the Golden Groundsel. I do have weeds growing in my garden like cosmos and periwinkle which I did not plant. They are beautiful and I’m happy to see them happy. But frankly, I do not quite comprehend why there is a need to preserve plants for the purpose of defining regions. Perhaps I misunderstood that statement.
Lovely quotes and images Meredith. I really agree with LBJ’s sentiment on beautification. It is a very superficial word and action.
The Wildflower Center is such a wonderful place! Great spring blooms and I love the bluebonnets. That is a great trellis and the skulls in the dessert scape is very clever. Thanks for sharing your tour.
this is one of the places I so long to visit one day…just gorgeous
Beautiful and invigorating, as it looks like you’re two months ahead of us here. It’s another reminder for me to get some bluebonnet seeds started too. =)
Meredith, at every photo I kept wanting to say, “Oh, I LOVE xyz” – red-eared sliders, wine cups, little wispy flowers in front of agave and prickly pear, etc. But thank you especially for the quotes from Lady Bird Johnson. I’d heard about her beautification program but didn’t realize how broad her vision was. Wow.
Oh how I miss visiting the center when I lived in San Antonio. Looks as good as ever. I bet the tex-mex was great. Great photos, looks like things are beginning to move. Nice tour for sure.
Spring has certainly sprung! Thanks again for the gorgeous photos as usual. Charleston, SC is now covered in pollen, so everything is a yellowy-green. My husband works in a movie theatre restaurant so gets home around 2 a.m. He says the pollen looks like snow falling on his way home at night. Glad the hay fever symptoms will be worth it soon when we have beautiful flowers to show for it all.