The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center (LBJWC) is one of the country’s premier native plant botanic gardens dedicated to the conservation and restoration of healthy landscapes. We’re excited to announce the recent joining of the LBJWC to the MJV partnership. Today the Wildflower Center is an innovative botanic organization committed to creating a world where human interactions enrich the land through the conservation, restoration and creation of healthy landscapes.
The Center has achieved great success during its 32 year history, evolving from a private non-profit research organization narrowly focused on Texas wildflowers to a major botanic garden and research unit of the University of Texas at Austin known for conserving plant diversity, landscape restoration, and sustainable approaches to landscape design and development. Through plant-based research, demonstration projects, education and the development of national-scale programs to promote sustainable landscape design, the Center is making a difference for the health of the planet.
LBJWC is planning many activities to support pollinators, including monarchs. To name a few, they plan to support the establishment of pollinator habitats at a few local, high-traffic areas in Texas; they will form and expand partnerships to help gardeners find plants that sustain bees and butterflies; they will integrate pollinator and monarch conservation and native plant needs into educational programs; and they will provide sustainably grown native plants at plant sales for homeowners to create pollinator-friendly gardens.
Visit the Center’s website, www.wildflower.org, for a full range of information useful to garden visitors as well as botanists, students, gardeners, native plant enthusiasts, landscape professionals and others. The Native Plant Information Network (NPIN) is a far-reaching, robust web-based native plant database (wildflower.org/plants) accessed by people across the United States. The database includes approximately 8000 native plant profiles (about one-third of all North American native plant species), with plant profile pages featuring information on growing requirements, geographic ranges, pollinator benefits, plant characteristics, photos and illustrations. Special collections of plants beneficial to pollinators can be found on their Pollinator Conservation page at www.wildflower.org/conservation_pollinators.
As a partner of the MJV, LBJWC will form connections with other partners to strengthen the resources about and availability of native plants throughout the country, including milkweeds and key nectar plant species for monarchs. LBJWC’s extensive database of native plant information will be a great resource for MJV partners and followers as they promote and support the establishment of backyard habitat for monarchs. We’re excited to continue to broaden the capabilities of this resource, and furthermore, hope that the Center will aid in our efforts to strengthen the commercial availability of native milkweeds.