Lady Bird’s legacy: the wondrous wildflowers : The former First Lady’s hard work pays off. She is called ‘a national symbol of beautification.’

Now is the time when Texas is at its best.

The wildflowers are abloom. Bluebonnets, the state flower, have turned meadows into carpets of blue. Indian paintbrushes flash crimson. A drive through the countryside is a journey in which each bend in the road reveals another spectacular scene.

Texas, more than any other state, is a wildflower paradise. And the person most responsible for all this is Lady Bird Johnson.

The former First Lady’s passion for beauty and nature are her legacy. Her success is also a mark of how one person with a vision can make a difference. She has carried on her work urging the preservation and spread of wildflowers for two decades after she left the White House, quietly leaving a mark on the country that is reborn each spring. And while Texas is the showcase, almost every state now has some kind of wildflower program.

“She is now a national symbol of beautification,” said historian Lewis Gould, who wrote a book on Mrs. Johnson and her work with the environment. “In terms of impact on social policy, Mrs. Johnson is premier in the 20th Century’s first ladies.”

Gould is not alone in his assessment.

“She’s a living legend,” said Holly Shimizu, a public programs specialist with the U.S. Botanic Garden. “She’s so highly regarded by everyone, everyone . She really has committed her life to it.”

The irony, of course, is that when Mrs. Johnson began her beautification programs in the mid-1960s, more worldly sorts greeted the idea with a wink and a nudge. Secret Service agents used to refer to her wildflower visits as another “walk in the weeds.” But it is Mrs. Johnson, 78, who has had the last laugh.

The centerpiece of her triumph is here on the outskirts of Austin, where, in 1982, she donated the 60 acres of land and the $125,000 in seed money for the National Wildflower Research Center.

It is, as one would expect, awash in wildflowers. And there is also a sense of real purpose--working to restore endangered species, learning more about what makes wildflowers grow, educating the public on the uses of the flowers.

“What we want to see happen is that native flora of this nation be protected while it is still out there and where possible, to have it re-established,” said David Northington, the executive director of the center. “We’re looking to restore the native flora--anything from a front yard to taking some abandoned farmland and re-establishing a native prairie.”

That is something of a tall order. According to Northington and others, 99% of all the natural prairie in the midsection of the United States has been lost, as Mrs. Johnson puts it, to “the plow and the cow.”

The prairies have been plowed under for agriculture or resown with grasses designed to fatten cattle more quickly. Northington said that even if the desire were there to restore the prairie, it would be difficult.

“A lot of farmland and rangeland has been abandoned, but it does not necessarily return to its original state because there is no native grassland to produce the seed,” he said.

Hence the work of the center, where a section of the land has been planted with native prairie plants as part of the research. Another branch of research is preserving endangered plants that could provide the basis for treating diseases.

“We may be losing forever the gene pools that can be used for curing diseases,” said Dana Leavitt, the board chairman of the center.

The interest in wildflowers has been growing over the years, particularly of late with continuing drought conditions in the West. No longer does it seem quite as fashionable, for instance, to have lush lawns in Tucson.

“It’s about time,” said Neil Diboll, a native plant specialist in Wisconsin. “We’ve been enforcing models of landscapes that have no sense of place to the local environment.”

One place where there is a great deal of interest in wildflowers is California, which ranks third behind Texas and New York in the number of inquiries at the center.

“We couldn’t have a more ideal time to get people interested in the center,” Leavitt said. “There is no better time to get people interested in conserving water and utilizing native plantings.”