Celebrating National Wildflower Week with Wildflower Center Tour

It's National Wildflower Week and a tour of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center is a great way to celebrate.  In April my neighborhood garden club headed to Austin for a guided tour.  We had perfect weather and spring wildflowers were at peak, so the timing was perfect.

First though, finally spotting the resident Great Horned Owl near the entrance arch was an exciting moment.  This was my third trip to the center in the last two years and each time I managed to miss her.  Even better was having the right camera lens along to get the shot.  She's on the right peeking under the the curved sotol leaf.

Iris at the nearby pond.

Bluebonnets were in bloom just past the main courtyard.

They're always planted here, along with deep purple winecups.



We had a tour with Doug who presented a detailed history of the center and its architecture.



Jenny of Rock Rose blog also led another part of our rather large group and we enjoyed a visit to Jenny's own garden later in the day.  (Photo below by Janne Aubrey)

Into the demonstration garden area where Scutellaria wrightii was in full bloom.

Touring the Wildflower Center always prompts me to note which ones are currently growing  in my own garden like the Scutellaria wrightii, Dichondra Silver Ponyfoot, and Hesperaloe,

Evening Primrose and Prairie Verbena also grow in my garden but not in combination.  Something to try next year.

Penstemon Cobea, with its cute little glove fingers which I planted last year has returned.

The tank gardens were in fine form full of great native blooming plants.

Stock Tank ponds are fascinating visiting children

I always take plenty of photos of the plants and tags like this Texas yellow star so I can compare with plants I need to ID later.

Since I'm usually here a month later during National Wildflower Week it was a treat to catch the fleeting blooms of crossvine brightening this fence and other parts of the garden.

This bench, which typically blends into the border, is a stand-out when the crossvine is in bloom.

Native Wisteria in bloom.  I'm looking for this one, it's gorgeous!  

Better behaved than the commonly grown asian version.  Crossvine brightens the stone wall in the background.

Art on display in the gardens includes this exceptional stone sculpture which is available for purchase.



More crossvine on an arbor and the spot where we enjoyed our lunch in the courtyard.

Hill Country Penstemon blooms bright.  Mine is a little behind in blooming but it gets more shade.



And now for the main event, Texas Hill Country views and fields of wildflowers

These Blubonnets are a deeper blue than those I grow.



More of those views

Texas Persimmon I think.

On my own for a few minutes after lunch, the San Antonio Tower near the main courtyard beckons.  The website states that the tower evokes the old Spanish missions built along the San Antonio River.  Our guide told us that the tower was originally cut from the construction budget until generous San Antonians raised the funds to complete it.

Wild flowers planted in the stairwell include Four-nerve daisy and Fleabane.  I just love the natural, casual way the flowers are grown in these gardens.

View from the tower.

The path winds over to the Luci and Ian Family Garden which will be featured in another post.

Seeing the Wildflower Center at peak time and with perfect weather made for a very enjoyable day.

Gardens on Tour 2014: Tait Moring's Garden

A week or so ago on Saturday I headed up to Austin with Heather of Xericstyle along with my friend and garden designer Linda Higby to meet up with the Austin bloggers for the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Gardens on Tour event.  Our first stop was Landscape Architect Tait Moring's south Austin garden.  Pam Penick had arranged early entry so we could get our photos ahead of the crowds and before the death star turned on full blast.  So thank Pam for the good light in these photos.

This was a great way to start off our tour.  I remembered this garden from Pam's previous posts and reread them in advance, yet I was still surprised by how wonderful it was to visit this garden.  The property is 22 acres along a busy road which fades away at first sight of garden spaces like this circular lawn visible from the driveway and bounded by bamboo to screen the traffic.

Gardens on Tour Austin: Bonnell Drive

This is the fifth and last garden in my series on the Gardens on Tour for the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin this past Saturday.  I joined Austin bloggers Pam Penick of Digging, Catherine Jones of The Whimsical Gardener, and David Cristiani of The Desert Edge from Albuquerque for a fun day of touring.  You can see the Highland Terrace West garden in my previous post.  

It's not often you get a chance to see the same garden on tour twice in six months.  This was the case with Bonnell Drive which I toured on the Garden Conservancy Open Days tour last fall.  I welcomed the opportunity to visit again in the spring comparing the seasons and seeing the changes since our last tour.  My goal was to focus on areas I didn't cover in detail in my previous post and I did that somewhat although the major focal points shouldn't be missed on any visit.  The opuntia were blooming this time adding a dash of yellow to the silvery and green foliage visible streetside.

Gardens on Tour in Austin: Highland Terrace West Part 2 and Foliage Follow-up

This is the "Four and a half" post in my five-part series on the Gardens on Tour for the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin this past Saturday.  I joined Austin bloggers Pam Penick of Digging, Catherine Jones of The Whimsical Gardener, and David Cristiani of The Desert Edge from Albuquerque for a fun day of touring.  Because the garden on Highland Terrace West had so much to show I'm posting the median strip which was included in the tour in a second part.  You can see the Highland Terrace West garden in my previous post.  Since the median mostly foliage I can also multi-task this as Foliage Follow-Up.  Foliage Follow-up is sponsored by Pam at Digging the day after Garden Blogger's Bloom Day.

From the tour brochure:

After the 2008 drought, the homeowner felt compelled to see if she could create a pleasing garden with many challenges: deer, no irrigation, poor soil, and rampant weeds. The median in front of the house demonstrates this and has become a community project for the neighborhood.

This was a good idea to turn what is often an overlooked space into a garden the community can enjoy.  The challenges are outlined above and below you see the results.

Gardens on Tour in Austin: Highland Terrace West Part 1

This is the fourth in my five-part series on the Gardens on Tour for the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin.  Last Saturday I joined Austin bloggers Pam Penick of Digging, Catherine Jones of The Whimsical Gardener, and David Cristiani of The Desert Edge from Albuquerque for a fun day of touring.  You can see the third garden, Placid Place, in my previous post.  After lunch we headed to Highland Terrace West and the second of the homeowner-designed gardens on tour this year.  This was a beautiful garden full of ideas.

Bruce Baldwin built many of the items in the garden and Colleen Jamison handled the planting and accessorizing.  Jenny of Rock Rose spent several hours as a volunteer in this garden so check out her post for the best scoop.  Pam at Digging also has a great take on this garden which is in her old neighborhood.

We were greeted by this bright and inviting front porch.

Gardens on Tour in Austin: Placid Place

This is the third in my five-part series on the Gardens on Tour for the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin this past Saturday.  I joined Austin bloggers Pam Penick of Digging, Catherine Jones of The Whimsical Gardener, and David Cristiani of The Desert Edge from Albuquerque for a fun day of touring.  You can see the second garden we toured, Westridge Drive, in my previous post.

The garden on Placid Place was one of two homeowner designed gardens on the tour this year.

Gardens on Tour in Austin: Westridge Drive

This is the second in my five part series of posts on the Gardens on Tour for the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin this past Saturday.  I joined Austin bloggers Pam Penick of Digging, Catherine Jones of The Whimsical Gardener, and David Cristiani of The Desert Edge from Albuquerque for a fun-filled day of touring.  You can see the first garden on the tour, Kathy Cove, in my previous post.

The second garden we toured was Westridge Drive.
 

Gardens on Tour in Austin: Kathy Cove Garden

In honor of National Wildflower Week, the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center held their annual garden tour in Austin on Saturday.  I joined Pam Penick of Digging, Catherine Jones of The Whimsical Gardener, and David Cristiani of The Desert Edge for the tour of five gardens. There's always a sense of anticipation when the gates open on a garden tour, and this tour was exceptional for its quality and mix of properties.

The gardens were labeled by address so the first garden we visited was Kathy Cove. 

Neighborhood wildflowers for National Wildflower Week

May 4-12, 2013 is National Wildflower Week sponsored by The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas.

I'm posting photos of wildflowers growing in a field near my house.  The field is commercial property and will be developed eventually.  I enjoy walking there and often collect seeds from plants to add to my garden.  The area below is a small arroyo which feeds the creek along our backyard.