Fall at Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

November 29, 2016

A traditional fall, with lots of colored leaves, is very hard to come by, but the Lady Bird Johnson National Wildflower Center is a treat to visit as a hot Texas summer cools down.

There is a lot to see and do in any season. The buildings are in the traditional hill country style and are very pleasing to view.  There is a water collection system that collects water off the roofs and sometimes becomes part of the architecture.

Normally I walk in and shoot ahead on this entrance area.  This is from behind a pond on
 one's left when coming in - pond is in foreground

The small pond offers many lovely views

A beautiful multi use tower - has a seating area at the top  and stores water, I think

Entrance to the tower

A view from the top over the planting beds which are at chest level along the top

Looking down from the tower at a water tank and landscaping by the administration building

The area where plants are raised for the semi annual plant sales - I spent a lot of hours working here before I became a vagabond

Stock tanks are used with great effect just behind the greenhouses- there are several "habitats" of them as well as beds of representing the different ecosystems of the state. 

 Flowers were almost non existant on this late fall day - but oh the butterflies. They were competing for the few flowers left so they were very concentrated. And the day was still cool enough that they were sitting a long time, allowing even me to capture them with my camera.

Queen

Painted Lady

The Wildflower Center is dedicated to using native plants whenever possible and has done a lot of research on grases and sedges that make fine yards that don't require fertilizers and pesticides, and which support native fauna. One of their beds was a demonstration of one of their yard grasses.

Habiturf 

One building on the grounds is dedicated to art shows and is changed out frequently with work that may be purchased.

Part of the current exhibit

A quite, cool place to sit and and enjoy the outside butterfly gardens

Part of a wooded garden

Buckeye

Dogface sulfur on echinacea

I love these benches in spring/summer when they are backed with blooming vines

The center had three demonstration gardens showing how native plants can be used for landscaping, in casual to formal gardens. Can you believe those are CEDAR TREES?

The demonstration of how to have a formal garden using native plants - the statue is part of the temporary art

One of the many volunteers that were cleaning out the beds for winter

A neat little secluded patio

Another volunteer working in the butterfly garden at the end of a long arbor

Several groups of children were there on field trips and were getting mini lessons

This area is part of the children's gardens and also has picnic tables

Loved how they channel water 

And did I mention there were lots of butterflies?  I got sidetracked by the several times.

Variegated fritillary 

Zabulon skipper

Think this is one of the painted ladies

Anybody know this one?

Or this one?

Dogface sulfur on turk's cap

Butterfly blowout - how many species can you find?

I enjoyed seeing Chile Piquin used in a raised bed- bluejays and I love to eat the them. 

An ancient tree near the entrance

 One of the last lantana blooms

There were sayings on several rocks within the family garden.  This one once again reminded me that we too, are part of nature and divorce ourselves from it at a great cost to ourselves.




Any time you get near Austin, Texas, be sure and visit this wonderful, ever changing place.  I didn't have time to tell you more but one of the new interesting sections is an arboretum where seeds from historically famous Texas trees have been planted.  Signage tells about their famous parents.

On the personal front, I've just arrived in Louisiana and will start another round of doctor visits and physical therapy on my shoulder soon.  Hulin and I will be traveling to California for Christmas with some of his family.

A Visit to South Texas Botanical Garden and Nature Center

I finally had enough of sitting around and wanted to visit friends in Corpus Christi before going on to visit my daugher for Thanksgiving. So I practiced shifting my five-on-the-floor left handed, then took off.

I spent several cloudy days waiting for a chance to visit the botanical gardens there. South Texas Botanical Garden and Nature Center is fairly new, (since 1996) but is growing and changing.

It also maintains a place for rescued parrots - there are several big flight cages and has an exhibit of snakes and other reptiles.





I had never been to the various greenhouses so was fascinated to find one was devoted to bromeliads. They are hanging from all the windows and walls, as well as on shelves and the floor.

One of the few bromeliad blooms

A second, huge, two room greenhouse was devoted to orchids, many of which were in bloom.  I think I have at least forty pictures of blooms but I tried to restrain myself in sharing with you. 

There are gardens all along the trails and greenhouses. I particularly enjoyed all the butterflies that were flitting around.  Most of them were queens.

I loved the colors and textures of these fall leaves against the grass stems

One of the queen butterflies

The garden has extensive rose beds and a lot of them were also in bloom. I fell in love with almost all of them. These were some of my favorite pictures of them.

I spent a lot of time on this bed of mistflower trying to get pictures of butterflies. Just I got in place to catch several of them, a toddler ran up and chased them away. But I still captured a few after waiting a few minutes.

Then I walked on through a lovely picnic area to trails that run around a lake.  There weren't many birds around, but I suspect that at times, this would be a great birding spot. But it is a wonderful place for a hike at any time.

When the trails brought me back to the developed gardens, I found a large cactus garden. The day was getting ever more cloudy so these will be much prettier on a sunny day.

By this time I was getting a little tired and was ready for a rest so was delighted to find a pair of couches just sitting in an outdoor room.  But they turned out to be a little harder than I expected.  They were made of stone. Even the textiles!

From the couch, I could enjoy the view of this bronze showing the history of the area, with farm workers getting a drink at the well.

I love chile pequins, the ancestral pepper. They work really well as a ground cover under trees.  I had never seen them used as a companion plant with pomegranates.  Now I wonder how well the two would combine into a recipe.

On the personal front, I'm out of my sling and working to get some of the use of my hand and shoulder back.  I'll be leaving for Louisiana this week.  But I have several other little adventures to share with you.  It still hurts to use my computer and I've been busy visiting and traveling but should be able to get at least one blog a week written. Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are keeping the Christmas madness at bay.