Not all plant sale finds are easy to come by! 👀 Our horticulture team is especially excited about a few standouts this spring, including some harder-to-find favorites and new additions to our offerings.

These picks bring a mix of evergreen structure, beautiful blooms, and drought-tough performance.

🌿 Prunus caroliniana (Carolina laurel cherry)
🌼 Aquilegia chrysantha (Golden columbine)
🌲 Hesperocyparis arizonica (Arizona cypress)

Coming to the Spring Native Plant Sale? Add one to your list.

wildflower.org/plant-sales

What’s blooming beyond the garden beds? 🌾

Wildflower Center Horticulturist Maggie shares a few of the less cultivated wildflowers you’ll find in our natural areas right now! Plants mentioned: firewheel (Gaillardia pulchella), silverleaf nightshade (Solanum elaeagnifolium), Texas skeleton plant (Lygodesmia texana), and hill country rain lily (Cooperia pedunculata).

Plan your visit: wildflower.org/visit

🎶 Background vocals by our very enthusiastic bird chorus!

#NativePlants #WildflowerCenter #TXWildflowers2026 #Wildflowers

Our Spring Native Plant Sale continues every weekend in April, with Texas natives ready to go home with you. Whether you’re starting small or rethinking your whole yard, this is a good place to begin. 🌱

Fridays are members only (9 a.m. – 1 p.m.), with the sale open to all on Saturday and Sunday.

Plan your wishlist at wildflower.org/plant-sales

🐣 We’ve been waiting for this moment! Athena’s first owlet has officially hatched.

Thanks to our partnership with @cornellbirdcams, you can watch the season unfold live, 24/7. Whether you’ve been following Athena for years or just discovered the cam, we’re glad you’re here.

Athena returned to the sotol planter on March 4, laid her first egg the next day, and a second a few days later. She’s been steadily incubating ever since, while her mate keeps watch and delivers meals at dawn and dusk.

Now, we wait for owlet #2 to appear!

📺 Watch live + learn more at wildflower.org/athena and allaboutbirds.org/cams/wildflower-great-horned-owls/

#BirdCam #GreatHornedOwl #AustinTX

Oh to be a bee diving into a lace cactus bloom.

Lace cactus (Echinocereus reichenbachii) produces large, short-lived flowers that can be nearly as wide as the plant itself. With dozens of ragged-edged petals and a dense cluster of stamens surrounding a multi-lobed stigma, the structure all but ensures contact as pollinators move through.

As bees push into the flower, they pick up and deposit pollen in the process. This kind of close contact is what allows the plant to set seed.

Native to dry, rocky soils across Texas and the southern Great Plains, lace cactus stays low to the ground and stores water in its stems. It may look unassuming most of the year, but during bloom, it becomes a concentrated resource for pollinators.

Each flower lasts only a day or two, so be sure to check them out on your way out to our research trails!

Plan your visit: wildflower.org/visit

You never know who you’ll meet along our Hill Country trails! Greater roadrunners (Geococcyx californianus), like this one spotted by our trailhead, spend most of their time on the ground, where they can reach speeds up to 20 mph. When they run, they lean forward with their tails streaming behind them, not far off from their cartoon counterpart. While they’re not strong fliers, you’ll often spot them perched like this before dropping down to hunt along open paths.

If you’ve been waiting for the “everything’s blooming at once” moment… this is it. 🌸🪻🌻🌼

This week: clasping coneflower (Dracopis amplexicaulis) + pearl milkweed vine (Matelea reticulata), plus a quick plant sale update (weekend one has arrived 👀)

You’ll also find some of Texas’ spring favorites looking especially strong right now, including bluebonnets (Lupinus texensis), Mexican gold poppies (Eschscholzia californica ssp. mexicana), winecups (Callirhoe involucrata), ranunculus (Ranunculus spp.), and pink evening primrose (Oenothera speciosa).

Our Spring Native Plant Sale runs every weekend in April 🌱
Fridays (9 a.m.–1 p.m.) are members only, and the full plant list is online.

Hope to see you soon! Plan your visit: wildflower.org/visit

If you want to see everything we have in bloom, your journey may require a small detour 👀

This week, Kyle heads into the Arboretum to see what’s popping up beyond the main paths.

And at the end, a quick preview from our nursery team… our Spring Native Plant Sale starts next week (April 3-26)! 🌱

Plants mentioned:
• Antelope Horns (Asclepias asperula)
• Star Milkvine (Matelea biflora)
• Four-Nerve Daisy (Tetraneuris scaposa)
• Goldeneye Phlox (Phlox roemeriana)
• Twoleaf Senna (Senna roemeriana)
• Bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis)
• Wild Garlic (Allium drummondii)

What are you noticing right now? Check out our list of what’s in bloom: https://www.wildflower.org/whatsinseason/

#WildflowerCenter #TexasWildflowers