The Draw of Nature I’ve worked at the Wildflower Center since 2005 and over the last year, I’ve looked forward to coming in on Wednesday mornings especially. Often, I see a certain group gathered either in the Café or around our display of seasonal plant specimens, sketching and sharing drawings. Over time, I have become their unofficial plant tutor and staff liaison. They show me their work. “Spiderwort?” I ask. “It is!” someone answers. “Is this one firewheel? Is this the stamen?” A chorus of delight and “yeses” erupts. And on we go. Part of the reason this is so fun is because many member ..read more

PRESSROOM Wildflower Center Launches Fortlandia Exhibition PHOTO Bill J. Boyd Austin, TX– The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center’s celebrated Fortlandia exhibition opens on October 7 and continues through February 4, 2024. The family-friendly, hands-on exhibition, began in 2018, inspires people of all ages to interact with the natural world in innovative and powerful ways. Each unique fort is designed to engage the senses and create a meaningful and memorable experience for guests. The group of nine forts and their designers are: Bloom Boxes Coxist Studio Bluebonnet Bend Point B Des ..read more

PRESSROOM International Augmented Reality Exhibition Comes to the Wildflower Center Coming to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in March 2023, Seeing the Invisible is the most ambitious and expansive exhibition to date of contemporary artworks created with augmented reality (AR) technology launched at 22 botanical gardens across six countries including Greece, Singapore, South Africa, and the United States. The exhibition features works by more than a dozen international artists such as Ai Weiwei, Refik Anadol, El Anatsui, Isaac Julien CBE RA, and Mohammed Kazem, among others — includ ..read more

A Place and a Promise Wildflowers — those colorful, rough-and-tumble bouquets dotted across meadows, fields and roadsides by people and Mother Nature — make excellent ambassadors. Their romantic beauty draws people into an appreciation for other native plants, perhaps even for the pricklier or less colorful ones. Lady Bird Johnson knew this well. When she co-founded the National Wildflower Research Center — later renamed the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center — she savvily branded the wildflower as the friendly face of her organization. “Wildflowers got you in the door,” explains her y ..read more

Free as a Bird When the Blackland Prairie Raptor Center’s rehabilitation team from just outside Dallas was preparing to set free 11 rehabilitated Mississippi kite birds, they decided the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center’s sprawling grounds of grasslands and adjacent woods was the best option – as it’s the preferred habitat for the kites. “We are always looking for safe release sites to make sure our patients have the best chance possible once they return to the wild,” said Hailey LeBaron, BPRC raptor rehabilitation manager. “It is important that we release them in areas where migrating Mi ..read more

PRESSROOM Field of Light Announces Discounts for Students and Teachers The Field of Light display at Sensorio in Paso Robles. (Laura Dickinson) AUSTIN, TX (September 22, 2022) – Field of Light tickets go on sale to the general public today for all dates November through December 30, 2022 and will include discounted tickets for students and teachers with valid school IDs the first Thursday and Sunday of the month, starting in October. Artist Bruce Munro’s illuminating exhibition opened its doors on September 9 with a glowing response from the community. Tickets through December are availab ..read more

The Underworld of Aquatic Arteries Cave biologists Drew Thompson and Colin Strickland survey a newly discovered cave 60 feet underground. PHOTO Drew Thompson Most of us cannot begin to comprehend the fascinating world of hidden caves that lies beneath our city streets. It’s a complex network of tubes, streams and underground lakes created by the persistence of water dissolving soluble limestone and then redepositing the calcium carbonate along its path to our aquifer. A strip of the Edwards Plateau limestone stretches through western Travis County, giving us a prime cave-producing region ..read more

Buzzworthy Bumblebees (Bombus spp.), like the one pictured here on a sunflower (Helianthus sp.), are decreasing in relative abundance as the summers get hotter. PHOTO Dr. Gabriella Pardee Dr. Gabriella Pardee’s decision to study bees was partially one of self-preservation. As an undergraduate at the University of Toledo, she conducted research on Azteca instabilis ants, a particularly aggressive species that is a friend to farmers hoping to eliminate coffee pests, but a foe to researchers wanting to avoid the need for anti-inflammation lotion.  “I loved doing research, but I hated wo ..read more

Beauty on the Balcony Textured pots and accented gold elements can turn any balcony or patio into a stylish native plant display. PHOTO Sarah Natsumi Moore Vast acreage and spacious suburban yards give homeowners plenty of opportunities to contribute to the world’s much needed greenspace and the Center’s mission inspiring the conservation of native plants. Urban apartment dwellers can also successfully grow many natives in containers on balconies and patios, bringing nature a little closer. Numerous plants native to Texas are quite happy to become tenants because their traits allow them to ..read more

Don’t Look Down PHOTOS Leslie Uppinghouse While walking a trail on any given Wednesday at the Wildflower Center, you may happen upon a set of ropes, carabiners, saws and a host of other tree-trimming gear underneath an age-old post oak (Quercus stellata). If you look up about 40 feet in the air, you may see one of the Center’s skilled women arborists swaying from branch to branch, pruning trees or cutting down dying limbs. “As soon as I learned you could climb trees for a living, I was trying to figure out how to do that,” says Rachel Brewster, Wildflower Center arborist. Currently ..read more