Prehistoric flora, moon bridge, and more at Zilker Botanical Garden

You'll be stepping back in time -- WAY back -- when we visit Zilker Botanical Garden during the Austin Fling next May. 

Why? My favorite garden there is the Hartman Prehistoric Garden, built where fossils were discovered (casts of them are displayed today), and planted with palms, ferns, cycads, magnolias, horsetail reed, ginkgos, and conifers -- primitive species that have survived from the age of dinosaurs. In the center of the garden, a bronze dinosaur seems to pause alertly, wondering where the strange, two-legged creatures looking at him came from.

The Isamu Taniguchi Japanese Garden is another popular garden at ZBG, with an arching moon bridge made of local juniper, koi ponds, a waterfall, and a small island reached by stepping stones. Fling planner Diana Kirby even got married there!

These are just two of the gardens at Zilker Botanical Garden, a beloved, 26-acre, park-like garden that for 60+ years has shown Austinites the variety of plants they can grow in our South-meets-Southwest climate, as well as offering half a million visitors each year a lovely place to stroll and explore near downtown. There's also a butterfly garden, a cactus and succulent garden that was recently redesigned, and a pioneer village with an operational blacksmith shop and two Swedish cabins.

Thanks to Austin Fling sponsor Zilker Botanical Garden Conservancy, we'll have lunch one day in ZBG's auditorium and then explore the gardens afterward. 

Zilker Botanical Garden Conservancy was established in 2015 to raise funds, increase visibility, and advocate for the garden. The Conservancy is working closely with the City of Austin and Austin Area Garden Council (AAGC) to fundraise for a master plan for the garden and implementation. Its goal is to turn ZBG into a world-class garden!

We're proud to partner with ZBG Conservancy, which is working to get funding and resources for this much-loved Austin public garden, and we look forward to sharing the garden with you!

Zilker Botanical Garden

Visit: 2220 Barton Springs Rd., Austin, TX 78746

Garden hours:

9 am to 6 pm (last entry at 5:30 pm)

Thursdays open until 8 pm (last entry at 7:30 pm)

Find us online:

Website

Facebook

Instagram

Pinterest

Twitter

Zilker Botanical Garden Conservancy

"Welcome to this place I love so much": Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at Austin Fling

The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center played matchmaker when I moved to Austin in 1994, giving me the nudge I needed to fall in love with Austin’s rugged and often spiny natural beauty. Twenty-three years later, I'm still smitten, and I can't wait to share the Wildflower Center, a native-plant botanical garden and research and conservation center, with everyone who comes to the Austin Fling next spring.

Lady Bird Johnson, visionary

Former First Lady and native-plant proselytizer Lady Bird Johnson founded the Wildflower Center in 1982, along with co-founder Helen Hayes, with the simple but essential mission to inspire the conservation of native plants. Dismayed by miles of landscape-cluttering billboards and junkyards along the nation's highways, she fought to preserve and celebrate the unique beauty of each region of the country. "I want Texas to look like Texas and Vermont to look like Vermont," she famously said.

A lot more than wildflowers

While spring wildflower displays at the garden are always a huge draw, I like to point out that the Wildflower Center is about so much more than Texas bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush. You'll find all kinds of Texas natives growing in the 284 acres of gardens, woodlands, and savannas. Even the popular new family garden -- fun for kids of all ages, so don't miss it -- features 100% native plants. Yuccas, grasses, trees, shrubs, perennials, wetland plants, cactus, native turf grass, and yes, wildflowers -- a fascinating range of Texas natives, from across our vast state -- can be found here.

There's a lot to see: the observation tower that doubles as a rainwater cistern, a family garden, stream and pond gardens, a meadow, an arboretum with tree swings for kids and adults, theme gardens, a pollinator habitat garden, and more. If you can tear yourself away from exploring the gardens, you can watch a short film in the visitor gallery about Lady Bird and the native plants she advocated for and/or shop in the center's well-stocked gift shop and bookstore.

Photography Workshop

On the morning that we'll visit, we're excited to be able to offer a special early-bird bus to the Wildflower Center for those bloggers interested in a garden photography workshop led by one of our generous sponsors, Precision Camera & Video. Look for this opt-in class when we open registration in early November. Those who want to sleep in or enjoy a leisurely breakfast will join us at the Wildflower Center on a bus that leaves just a little bit later.

We look forward to sharing this unique native-plant botanical garden with you and feel sure that you'll enjoy all that the Wildflower Center has to offer. And if the matchmaker works her magic on you, it's OK with me if you fall in love with Austin's natural beauty too.

Pam/Digging