Past Issues Of Wildflower Magazine

Wildflower is published quarterly by the Wildflower Center. Its content is national in scope with articles about the conservation and use of native plants as well as news from the Wildflower Center. A subscription is provided to Wildflower Center members as a benefit of membership.

Letter from the Editor - Fall 2006

If it's true that to every thing there is a season, this autumn at the Center is the season for a good number of things.

In addition to the many fall events we will host this year, fall 2006 will be remembered for two very significant changes in the life of the Wildflower Center: its union with the University of Texas at Austin and the launch of Wildflower magazine.

Both of these changes mark a year or more of planning, and their simultaneous occurrence is a source of great pride for the Center. You'll also notice that other aspects of the Center have been renamed to be consistent with the organization's name. Wild Ideas: The Store now will be referred to as the Wildflower Center store.

If you are familiar with our history, you will remember that Wildflower was the name of the Center's newsletter from its inception in 1982 to 1998 and of its journal from 1988 to 1993. Although readopting Wildflower as our magazine's name is very exciting, there is more to Wildflower than just a new title. We've restructured the magazine to bring you more information on more topics in an easier-to-digest format. Here are some highlights:

  • A new feature article format. Wildflower magazine will include one fewer feature-length article than did Native Plants, but it will cover topics in more detail. Take for example "Raising the Roof" (pages 12-19), which includes sidebars on how to create a green roof and select appropriate plants for green roofs. Our feature articles also now include what we call "Wildflower Facts" - small bits of information on the featured topic.

     

  • A new Field Notes. We've shortened certain items, like the Focus on a Native Plant in Season, and added others like the Spotlight on a Wildflower Region as well as Growing Power, which includes news on our affiliates. We've also placed many items that appeared on their own in Native Plants here to combine all news from the Wildflower Center within one section.

     

  • A new section, In Bloom. This section combines many of the items found in Native Plants, including Tending Garden and the how-to piece, Root of the Matter. We've also introduced a Kids' Corner in this section and transformed Native People, our interview column.

     

  • And, of course, a new design. We could not have fulfilled our vision for Wildflower without the elegant new design brought to us by Yo!Media. In Churl Yo and his team are well regarded for the fresh, award-winning look they brought to Native Plants more than four years ago. This time, they've come to understand even better our aspirations for the magazine and our readers - and it shows!

Some things have not changed. We continue to obtain paper that includes at least 10 percent post-consumer waste from Stora Enso, recognized as a leader in sustainability, social and environmental excellence, and for its approach to climate change by groups like Dow Jones and Switzerland's World Economic Forum. All of Stora Enso's mills are certified to the ISO 1 4001 international environmental standard. We continue to print the magazine at Times Printing, which is a member of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources' exclusive Green Tier program and is known for taking steps to exceed environmental compliance in the areas of air protection, energy efficiency, and recycling of ink and waste-absorbent materials.

And we continue to welcome your participation and feedback. We want you to be as excited about the changes as we are and hope you'll write to let us know it. Enjoy your new magazine and the season.

- Christina Kosta Procopiou, Editor

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