Wildflowers Across America

Although her love of flowers goes back to her childhood among the bluebonnets of Texas, it was during her years as First Lady that Lady Bird Johnson became a key figure in the Beautification Movement, using her dedication to the cause and her personal warmth and charm to enhance the beauty of the nation’s capital and eventually the entire country with native flowers and greenery. Wildflowers became her passion, and on her 70th birthday in 1982, Mrs Johnson founded the National Wildflower Research Centre with the aim of encouraging the use of more native plants and wildflowers in American’s landscaping plans. Written in association with horticulturalist Carlton Lees, this volume offers an emphatic argument for the preservation and proliferation of the natural beauty of America’s native flora. The wildflowers discussed here, once established, take little maintenance, no fertilizer, no herbicide or pesticides, and are an ecologically sound and low-cost way to make roadsides, park areas, golf-course roughs, or one’s own country garden, bloom and grow. The book also deals with such practical matters as establishing wildflower meadows - as well as where to get the necessary seeds.