Enjoy and Plant Texas Wildflower Seeds

Celebrate Texas Heritage - Grow the State’s Wildflowers from Seed

Oct 26, 2009

Texans enjoy, protect, and grow wildflowers in abundance. Wildflowers come from harvested seeds and only a few, like the bluebonnet, are available as transplants.

According to Susan Rieff, Director of the Wildflower Center in Austin, “Texas contains nearly a quarter of all native flora in North America.” It is a heritage of beauty for everyone. Thanks to the tireless efforts of environmental visionaries like Lady Bird Johnson, Texas roadsides are covered in wild flowers including bluebonnets, indian paintbrush, buttercups, and black-eyed susans every spring.

Tour the Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas

Located in southwest Austin just off State Highway 290, the Wildflower Center is spread over 279 acres. The Center features approximately 650 species of Texas native plants mostly from the Central Texas Hill Country.

Visitors to the Center are invited to see the 16 individual gardens including the butterfly garden, the meadow, and the courtyard or explore the entire site over quarter, half, and mile long trails. Each trail has a specific purpose in inspiring and education visitors. For example, the Restoration Research Trail demonstrates how fire, grazing, and mowing impact the growth of native grasses.

The Center is actively engaged in research supporting an international partnership to set aside seeds for future generations. Flo Oxley, the Center’s director of plant conservation reports that they have “banked more than 10,000 seeds from species that form the backbone of the landscapes that make Texas what it is.” The Native Plant Information Network available online and hosted by the Center and the University of Texas in Austin is a database of more than 7,200 native species.

Getting Texas Wildflower Seeds for a Landscape

Traveling through Texas in the spring, one will see a profusion of wildflowers along the highway cared for by the State. For help in identifying the many wild growing flowers, an excellent resource is the Wildflowers of Texas Field Guide by Nora and Rick Bowers (2009). Organized by color, the guide makes it easy to identify the individual flowers that grace the landscape.

Another irreplaceable resource for those wishing to plant wildflowers in their landscape is Wildseed Farms located a few miles further west on highway 290 from the Wildflower Center - a “few miles” in Texas is about 50. Wildseed Farms is the largest working wildflower farm in the U.S. with more than 200 acres under cultivation.

At Wildseed Farms tourists may purchase small bags of wild flower seeds that include Texas wildflowers as well as those from other regions of the country. Texas specialty foods, gift baskets, souvenirs, and gardening books are also available. If one is not coming to Texas for a visit, items may be ordered from Wildseed Farms online.

Texas in the spring is a lovely place to visit. Before the summer heat arrives, one can tour the hill country, stay at a dude ranch, shop in country cupboards and sophisticated stores and enjoy the wildflowers wherever one travels.

The copyright of the article Enjoy and Plant Texas Wildflower Seeds in Wildflower Gardens is owned by Barbara Brown. Permission to republish Enjoy and Plant Texas Wildflower Seeds in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.