Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

To conserve, restore and create healthy landscapes – That’s the mission of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Southwest Austin. Through innovative research, the center focuses on showing the beauty and usefulness of native plants in everyday life. It all started back in 1982, when our former first lady, Lady Bird Johnson, started an organization to “protect and preserve North America’s native plants and natural landscapes,” as stated in the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center website. In addition to various exhibits of native plants, the Center also helps users develop “comprehensive educational materials and consults on landscape development projects of all sizes to capitalize on the ability of native landscapes to improve communities.” The photo above shows a Queen butterfly on Gregg’s mistflowers.