(birds chirp and bees buzzing)
(music)
- NARRATOR: Just about everybody enjoys wildflowers.
(music)
They are so simple and yet so beautiful.
(music)
In a world full of noise and confusion they offer peace,
serenity and solace.
(music)
- CHILD: Mommy!
- MOTHER: What are ya doin'?
- NARRATOR: One of the best places to learn
about wildflowers and other native plants is the
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin.
- The Wildflower Center is really about native plants.
Our stated mission is to educate people about the environmental
necessity, the economic value and the natural beauty
of native plants.
- NARRATOR: Water conservation is a major issue
that faces all of us.
The Wildflower Center conducts numerous programs where
people can learn management techniques and how to use
native plants to save water.
The results of these practices are evident
all over the grounds.
(music)
- NARRATOR: Walking the numerous trails is a great way to see
the benefits of this kind of conservation.
It's also a great place to simply enjoy the outdoors.
Another popular site shows how you can utilize native plants
around your home.
- This area is called the theme gardens.
This is where we show different types of demonstrations
of how to arrange plants in somewhat of a formal setting.
- NARRATOR: There themes for almost every interest.
Want to keep deer out of your garden?
There are plants for that.
Attracting songbirds is easy when you select the
proper native plants.
If you want to show the red, white and blue, why not grow it
and save water at the same time.
(music)
Plants in the theme garden are labeled to educate visitors
about the possibilities of using native plants.
- MIKE: That gives them several choices.
They have the opportunity to come out here and see all the
different variety of plants that we have and to use those to
their liking.
Native plants don't require us using pesticides and fertilizers
that could damage the environment.
And economically speaking, it saves water, time, maintenance.
The other thing is that it's educational.
It provides education to children as well as adults
on using these types of plant materials as landscape
in the home and commercial areas.
- NARRATOR: The Wildflower Center is not only a source
of inspiration, it's also a source of plants.
- We have two Gardening Festivals each year.
We have one in the spring and one in the fall,
and we have lots of education related activities aimed
at the local central Texas audience, especially people
that maybe just moved here from another place and don't know
about our native plants, people that just bought a house
and are looking for ideas.
We have many extremely knowledgeable volunteers,
we have people throughout the horticulture industry
that come and help us that day of the Festival.
- You know, kill it lightly, put the seed down,
pack it a little bit, if you can water it, fine.
If not, let the good Lord take over.
Alrighty?
Thank you!
- DENISE: So the idea is that people can come
and get the information they need and the resources they need
to go home and actually plant a native landscape.
- MIKE: The plants are propagated and grown
here on the grounds.
It gets quite busy those times of years because we're preparing
and providing quite a production of plants.
We have approximately about 170 different species
that are available.
You're sure to get a nice variety of native plants.
(music)
- NARRATOR: About a third of our native plants are threatened
or endangered.
(music)
Planting native species is a way to invest in the future of our
natural heritage.
It's a way to demonstrate our love for the natural world
and teach our children a valuable lesson.
- DAMON WAITT: We are interested in transforming the way people
think about plants so that they can gain a better knowledge
and understanding of their ecological heritage,
especially here in Central Texas.
- STUDENTS: (chanting) Seeds grow, seeds grow...
- We run a large number of educational programs.
Everything from public outreach, to school group visits.
We have conferences and seminars on special topics, such as oak
wilt and then juniper control.
(fire crackles)
- And you can light this and you can send
a head fire that runs into that.
- DAMON: There's a couple different approaches
you can take.
One of the approaches recommended by our landscape
restoration program is to implement controlled burns
to encourage the growth of grasses and wildflowers.
- This is a little wind meter.
It works pretty well out in the field.
You know you think it's just a little toy but it actually
works pretty well.
On the left side it has a low scale that goes from about
two miles per hour up to about 10.
And if you've got winds like we do today,
that side of the scale is okay.
Be sure to watch it if it tries to come across.
Now just imagine if you had to walk two miles standing
bent over like that.
Hold up, hold up!
Anytime you see something different than it was doing,
like it's going that way?
Stop, you know and let it do what it's going to do
and more than likely it's gonna come back this way in a second.
You want to just back him up after he wets it.
Just kind of stir it up a little.
- NARRATOR: When done correctly, prescribed burns can be focused
precisely where you need them, to help bring back a diversity
of plants.
(music)
- NARRATOR: The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
has so many dimensions.
It's a place to learn.
A place to look.
A place to connect.
- BOB: The Wildflower Center is a place about place.
It's a place that demonstrates the biological richness
and the botanical diversity of the Texas Hill Country.
Everything you see here is native to this part of the world
and the idea is that every place is rich and beautiful,
including this place so we want you to come here
and see what we've done just using the native plants
of the Texas Hill Country.
And then of course, our real encouragement is just to get out
in nature and look around you and look at it deeply, and look
at the patterns in nature and how they work and we encourage
people to try to bring those patterns into their own lives
and their own communities.
(music)