Annette,,,wild flowers

18 years ago

Lady Bird Johnson was the one the got people to pay attention to disappearance of the flowers.

Daddy was a supervisor for the highway dept. at that time. He won an award, presented by her, for growing so many bluebonnets in his area. He said the hardest part was to keep the mowers from mowing down the plants before the seed matured.

Part of the plan was volunteers & garden clubs buying and planting seeds along the roadways. A few dollars per person made a difference.

If this is something you want to continue, contact the center, perhaps they will have hints, ideas etc. for starting a plan in your area.

If nothing else, buy seeds and start a patch on a highway near your home.

As you can tell, this is one of my passions. I wanted to mix some of DH's ashes with seed. But Daddy discouraged me as they are going to widen the hwy and they would probably have been paved over. It never entered my mind that at some point I would move from there.

Here is a link that might be useful: Johnson wild flower center

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Comments (3)

aftermidnight Zone7b B.C. Canada
18 years ago
Kathy, I love wild flowers, we did a narrow strip on one side of the driveway one year. I have a long planter on one side of the house where I usually put my perennials I've grown from seed until they're big enough to move into their permanent position it's empty at present but I'm thinking wild flowers :o) and yes both DH and I have scattered wild flower seeds on occasion we both love them.
I have watched a program on TV about Lady Bird Johnson and her love of wild flowers, of course that was quite some time ago. She was an amazing lady.

Annette
midnightsmum (Z4, ON)
18 years ago
OK, Kathy - it's your fault -almost. Several years ago, a friend in the biz (travel biz, that is) and I took off for a late March weekend to Galveston. We had the cutest little bomb of a car - a Misubishi Eclipse rag-top. We swore we would keep the top down, no matter if we had to wear coats and keep the heat on - we didn't have to.... so, the part that is your fault: the flowers in the swards of the freeways!!!! omg, they were amazing. I was driving(barely), so no pics, but the bluebonnets, wow; there were others that I couldn't identify, it might have been the distance, or the speed.

How beautiful they were - I remembered at the time that Lady Bird had started the effort - how cool that your Dad was involved!!! What was the orange?
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natvtxn
Original Author
18 years ago
Midnight, I am so glad you got to see them. Until someone sees them they don't understand.
if you meant the orange flowers growing by the road, those are indian paintbrush. They are nearly impossible to grow commercialy. Now we can buy 6 packs of BBs at the nursery.
Most likely some of the ones you saw were drummond phlox, evening primrose,
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Wildseed farms now sells seed for most areas of the country

Here is a link that might be useful: wild flower seeds