Ahh, Texas bluebonnets! They’re turning Austin’s roadsides blue right now, and early ‘bonnets were in bloom last week at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

I wish everyone could experience a good bluebonnet season at least once in their lives.

California poppies were blooming too, their orange cups a counterpoint to the sapphire bluebonnets.

Feathery foliage

That same clump of orange California poppies is at middle-left in this wide shot of the central garden. As you can see, the wildflowers were pretty sparse then (March 13th), but each week more and more early-spring wildflowers like bluebonnets and poppies appear until peak bloom in early to mid-April.

The Wildflower Center’s stock-tank game is strong.

Fragrant Carolina jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens) blooming on the long cedar pergola that once supported a grapevine and a native wisteria. Maybe they’re still there.

In the butterfly house, a pair of cecropia silkmoths were mating acrobatically.

Nearby, the pollinator garden was coming to life with flowering ornamental trees like Mexican buckeye (Ungnadia speciosa).

Their carnation-pink flowers were pretty in the afternoon light.

More

And more!

Texas mountain laurel (Sophora secundiflora) was putting on a show too. Here, trees flowering in different shades of purple stand side-by-side for comparison.

Which do you prefer: the pale lilac or amethyst purple?

They both smell like grape Kool-Aid.

Mmmmm!

Mexican plum (Prunus mexicana) has a spicy fragrance that tickles my nose.

Hints of last season remain for now, like a stand of bushy bluestem (Andropogon glomeratus).

Heading into the woodland trail that leads to the family garden, I spotted a sweet wren camouflaged amid the bare branches of a cedar elm.

This majestic tree stood bare, not yet convinced winter was over. I bet it’s green now, a week and a half later.

Under a mass of wheeler sotol (Dasylirion wheeleri), a patch of bluebonnets intensifies the blues.

The family garden is usually swarming with kids, but during the late Tuesday hours (until 8 pm now!), I had the place nearly to myself.

Lots of texture here, with a tiled Fibonacci spiral wall and a stone tunnel beyond.

Last season’s freeze-dried fruits hang on a buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis).

We’ll peek inside the tunnel in a moment.

But first let’s check out the giant twig nests for kids to play in.

Another play structure was walled with bound grasses.

Rusty blackhaw viburnum (Viburnum rufidulum) in bloom. I need to plant one.

A closeup

I’ve always liked this contemporary planting of Arizona cypress, wheeler sotol, and muhly grass (probably Gulf muhly).

A wide look at the Fibonacci spiral wall.

Inside the stone tunnel, Keith Haring-like cave “paintings” adorn the walls.

A small cave leads behind a waterfall and is topped with a green roof of spiky desert plants.

Water abundance and the lack of it, in one vignette.

Yucca in bloom

A stream meanders toward the waterfall cave from holey limestone boulders — symbolic headwaters. A nearby water pump and pails entice kids to pour water over the rocks or into the stream. Beyond, a galvanized cistern collects water from the roof of a shade pavilion.

Dinosaurs were here!

Behind the waterfall, a flowering Texas mountain laurel caught my eye, and then so did the sunlit spiral tower behind it.

A vertical view captures a towering yucca and agave as well.

As the sun dipped to the horizon, its last rays illuminated a climbing Carolina jessamine.

Golden trumpets, each one heavenly scented

The golden flowers stand out against the dark-green leaves.

Arched doorway view

Rabbit-eared leaves of giant coneflower carpet a rain garden. Beyond, butterfly benches beckon visitors of all sizes.

A hedge maze leads to a central sculpture: a glassy-eyed frog. I adore the fragrant “hedge” of Carolina jessamine trained on a sandwich of wire trellising. That “sandwich” provides protection for the vine, plus hedge-like architecture for the central maze.

Mexican plums flowering by the pavilion caught my eye, still glowing at twilight.

Popcorn-like blossoms attracted bees…

…and framed blue-green wheeler sotols.

I’m so glad to have caught them in full bloom.

I was fast running out of daylight, and the gardens would be closing soon.

It was time to hop on home.

This is part 2 of my early spring visit to the Wildflower Center on March 13th. For part 1 of my Wildflower Center tour, click here.

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