 The following is a production of New Mexico State University. Welcome to the stunning Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in sunny Austin, Texas. This park was founded by the first lady in 1982. I'm here today with Dr. Robert Brunig, known better here as Dr. Bob, who's Executive Director of the Center. You're going to tell us some things about some of the plants here. Okay. Well, first, this is one of the plants we have growing here in our Hummingbird Garden, and all of these plants are attractive to hummingbirds. You notice it has that long red tubular flower, and that's particularly good for hummingbirds. This is a plant from the Transpecos, Texas, just west of here, and it also occurs in Arizona and New Mexico. And it's a relative of lambsears. It's in the mint family. A lot of people know lambsears, and this one's a different lambsears. It doesn't feel like a lambsear. Here's a plant I know isn't native, but it's used throughout the southwest in landscapes, the red yucca. It is. It's a beautiful landscape plant because it has a nice form, and it has a nice flower stalk. It's Hesperallo, parvaflora, or also known as red yucca. Good plant for landscapes throughout the southwest. A great plant for the landscapes of all throughout the southwest, recommended. And the verbenas? And again, a great for another one for hummingbirds. Okay. And the verbenas as well, or throughout the southwest? Yeah, this is one that actually crept into our hummingbird display. I was going to say, it doesn't look like a hummingbird plant, but it's a beautiful landscape plant. It's a prairie verbena. This plant and all the plants that you see here at the Wildflower Center are native to the Edwards Plateau, or immediately adjacent to the Edwards Plateau, and the whole idea behind the Wildflower Center is that trying to encourage people to look at the diversity literally in their own backyards or in their own region and to connect with their own natural heritage and bring it into their gardens. So there's more to the Wildflower here than just the Texas Blue Bonnet? Exactly, but speaking of Blue Bonnets, let's go take a look at some. Wow, this is really pretty. It's enough to make a Texan proud and how to know because I grew up in Texas. Well, actually, this is the state flower of Texas. There are six species of Blue Bonnets in Texas, but this is the one that grows in this part of Texas, Lupinus texensis, or they're all known as the Texas Blue Bonnet. It really doesn't like to leave Texas, does it? Well, this one is, you only find it in central Texas. Of course, there are many, many species of Lupin all over the United States. But so what we would say to you is find that native Lupin and bring it into your yard. Don't try to import a Texas Blue Bonnet outside of Texas. I've seen others try to grow the Texas Blue Bonnet outside of Texas. They had difficulty. What I like though is the variation in this. Different colors within different flowers. Yes, sometimes you even get white Blue Bonnets and now people are doing horticultural experimentation and even growing maroon Blue Bonnets. If you can have such a thing. Texas Aggies love maroon. They do indeed. And speaking of maroon, we got the wine cups right here growing with it. The wine cup here is, I love these wine cups. They, to me, just say spring. And they're one of our most vivid spring wildflowers. And in other parts of the Southwest, it's known as the poppy mallow. They are in the mallow family. That's right. Excellent plants throughout the Southwest. They're a great plant. And of course, there are many species of wine cup, but this is one that we particularly see here in Texas. And you notice how well it works with the Blue Bonnets. I was noticing that, yes. And that's one of the things we really encourage is people to really think about how to combine different wildflowers to get a really nice array of colors in the garden. Not just have one thing, but a mixture. You did that right over there. Exactly. There we've got, we've actually got a number of wildflowers in that bed. But right now, we just have the Blue Bonnets and the Drummond's flocks. But boy, do they look nice together. Red, white in the Blue Bonnet, and then the blue in the Blue Bonnet. There we are. We've got a patriotic bed. We sure do. If you just had fragrance in the Blue Bonnets, that'd be the perfect flower then. Well, I guess you just can't have, you know, nothing's perfect. No one's perfect. And I guess we'll just have to enjoy it for the color. It's nice. There are other plants that do smell good. Yes, there are. Have you got that in the sensory garden? Yes, we do. You want to go look? Let's look. All right. Well, this one looks like the Betany, but it's not, is it? It's the Salvia, Salvia Romeriana. But it's in our sensory garden because it's one of our favorite salvias. Salvia is a sage. Okay. So it smells good. And then this is a chocolate flower. I know it's here. It smells like what? Well, any chocoholic knows what a chocolate flower smells. It doesn't taste like chocolate, but it smells like chocolate. So that's a wonderful plant to have in a sensory garden. Here's cherry sage or autumn sage. It really belongs in here. It's a wonderful plant for its smell. Ah, yes. It does smell good. Well, Dr. Bob, thank you for the tour of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. It's beautiful. And it's been wonderful to have you here. Thanks for coming. The preceding was a production of New Mexico State University. The views and opinions in this program are those of the author. And do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of the NMSU Board of Regents.