“I just petted a butterfly!” uttered the amazed Gavin Johnson at the Wildseed Farm’s Butterfly Haus.  The butterflies were everywhere – flitting from one colorful flower to another. I was visiting Wildseed Farms near Fredericksburg, Texas, because the idea of splashing the countryside with a riot of color has appealed to me since the days when Lady Bird Johnson challenged Americans to beautify the America. It was something I had always wanted to do on my own property but wildflower seeds were not that easy to come by so I never did but here was an opportunity to learn more about wildflowers – and butterflies. 

Wildseed Farms was not a direct outgrowth of Lady Bird’s call to plant wildflowers but there might just be something in the air – or soil - because the Johnson homestead is just down the road. Lady Bird believed that beauty is not a luxury, and that the landscape has an intrinsic value that cannot and should not be ignored. She wanted America the Beautiful to be more than just a song title; it should be a description of our way of life and an expression of our most cherished values.

In 1983, John R. Thomas, Wildseed's founder and president, also realized that there were very few sources for wildflower seeds and that the seeds that were available were prohibitively expensive. The public's love of wildflowers along with increasing demands from landscape contractors and the highway department motivated Thomas to turn his sideline turf seeding business into a full-time wildflower farm. To make it profitable he had to development of a machine to plant the tiny seeds and another to harvest them.

Today, Wildseed Farms is the largest working wildflower farm in the U.S. But it is more that wild seeds, it is also home to the Brewbonnet Biergarten where people can sample locally produced foods, and the Market featuring a huge selection of Texas gifts, specialty foods and ladies' apparel. But my favorite was the Butterfly Haus with hundreds of native Texas butterflies and a Butterfly Learning Center that teaches about the butterfly life cycle, from caterpillar to chrysalis to beautiful butterfly. There is something special about butterflies and wildflowers that lifts my spirit.

I bought some wild flower seeds packaged specifically for my northern U.S. climate and another package of seeds to encourage butterflies to visit my property.  Then I was off to the Lyndon B. Johnson Historical Park, where the first thing I noticed was the expanse of wild flowers around the visitor’s center.  Beautiful! The displays and videos in the Visitor’s Center made me more appreciative of the Johnsons and their legacy and the land that nurtured them. The Vietnam War made the Johnson years tumultuous but somehow Lady Bird’s Beautify America has had a impact that transcends war, economic hard times, and strife of all kinds.  Wild flowers can now be seen along highways and on private property. The world would be a more beautiful place if we all planted “a bush, a tree, or a scrub” and scattered wild flower seeds everywhere.  And, like Gavin we all need to stop and “pet a butterfly.”

If You Go...
www.wildseedfarms.com
www.nps.gov/lyjo
www.fredericksburg-texas.com

From top: Wildseed Farms Historical Center is surrounded by natural beauty; Gavin Johnson "pets" a butterfly at Lyndon B. Johnson Historical Park; Lady Bird's Beautify America is alive and well in Fredericksburg, TX.