LADY BIRD JOHNSON'S WILDFLOWER CENTER

After a busy, jampacked, informative day at the LBJ Presidential Library and the Texas State Capitol the day before, we had planned to go back to the area and visit the Bullock Museum the next day. The next morning though when we woke up to some rain, we decided to rest up a little and go out later in the day. That little break gave me a chance to check out some other options. 

So instead of heading out to the Bullock Museum, we found ourselves searching out the Texas' Botanical Garden - Lady Bird Johnson's Wildflower Center. We had enjoyed seeing some wildflowers along the highway driving in from New Orleans. We knew about the bluebonnets, but we were seeing so many other pretty wildflowers, too.

We were there probably a few weeks early to really enjoy the flowers, but it was still a fun few hours. It is a beautiful place and I am sure if we lived nearby, we would have a membership as we would be going there often to see the new plants in bloom. Lots of fun things for children, too. I hope you will enjoy my pictures.

There was an owl nesting behind the palm in the upper left corner of the wall.

Texas Bluebonnets

Golden groundsel (Sunflower family)

This is a favorite area for children....

Would love to see this when the Carolina Jessamine is in bloom on this fence/wall.

Can you see the frog structure in the center of this maze formed by the fence wall?

They had these metal seats and larger benches in the area 

The Observation Tower can collect 5,000 gallons of water

View from the top....

Rainwater is collected by 17,000 sq. feet of rooftops.

We enjoyed a delicious bowl of soup in the cafe

The Entry Cistern can collect 3,000 gallons of water

An off-duty docents that we met when we came in told us to make sure we visited  the Shou Ping ("Sue Ping") three dimensional paper sculptures on display in the Margaret and Eugene McDermott Learning Center. (This was the best advice we got while we were there! Beautiful artwork! I am sorry that you can't really appreciate her brilliance from my pictures.) The artwork will be on display until May 28th if you are in the area.

The artworks are for sale, too.

One last picture... they had these windchimes positioned around the center. Such a beautiful sound.

I am sure we would have enjoyed the Bullock Museum, but it was good to get out and enjoy this center even though we know we missed almost all of the flowers in bloom. Oh, well, maybe we will find ourselves back in the Austin area again sometime. I know if we do, the Lady Bird Johnson's Wildflower Center will be on our "to-do" list.