A generous donation from the Tres Grace Family Foundation enabled us to launch our new Community Access Program, which provides free Wildflower Center admission to underserved people in Austin.

Luminations returned to the Wildflower Center and celebrated its highest grossing year yet. More than 23,000 guests strolled through nearly two miles of lights and enjoyed hot chocolate, food trucks and interactive play for all ages.

Fortlandia, our annual exhibition of locally designed secret hideouts, celebrated its sixth year, solidifying itself as a family tradition for many Austinites.

Wildflower Journeys, our environmental travel program, took its first voyage in February 2024. Participants enjoyed an exclusive tour of México’s gardens and natural wonders, including a visit to the monarch reserve, where monarch butterflies congregate every winter.

Athena, our resident great horned owl, returned to her nest for the 14th consecutive year. This time, people across the globe followed along as her owlets hatched and fledged, thanks to the owl cam we installed in partnership with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Our new summer exhibit, Dinosaurs Around the World, drove traffic to our gardens during a typically slower season, introduced the Wildflower Center to many new people, and yielded a 25% boost in new memberships during its run.

Construction wrapped on the Wildflower Cave Classroom, an outdoor space designed to minimize impact on the cave and its surrounding land and plants, while allowing students to explore and learn in innovative ways.

One of our members donated a full collection of native Texas ferns to us; enough to start a fernery. We’re installing a special greenhouse to show off the collection and look forward to seeing it grow.

Major gifts from Mary Cook, Page and John Schreck, and Nancy Garrison are enabling us to remodel, restore and reinvent the McDermott Center into an open-air, multi-use facility that will serve our mission for years to come.

Our plant sales continue to grow and blossom, becoming more popular than ever. Our fall, winter and spring plant sales brought in 117% of their target revenue.

We transformed our retail space into a new shop and gallery, focused on local, ethically produced, artisan-made goods that reflect and support our mission. Sales are strong, so guests seem to approve.

We launched a new conservation project, focused on the collection and propagation of four rare Prunus trees, to increase numbers and promote diversity of the genus, which includes plums, cherries, peaches and almonds.

Our team continues to monitor the few remaining wild populations of the threatened big red sage (Salvia pentstemonoides) and champion its survival by studying pollinator activity and growing seeds collected from our gardens to establish baseline data.

Generous gifts from Jeanie and Tom Carter and the Winn Family Foundation will enable the Wildflower Center to expand our Science and Conservation efforts – and the entire department – significantly in the next two years.

A team from the Wildflower Center collected DNA samples – for ongoing study and conservation – from the only existing colony of Quercus hinckleyi, a rare oak species, near Big Bend Ranch State Park.

Our team led the launch of the Texas Plant Conservation Alliance, a collaboration of like-minded organizations and professionals, dedicated to sharing resources and learnings around plant conservation in Texas.

We conducted and supported 679 acres of prescribed burns – for ecological restoration, wildfire management and biological diversity – including on our own land and partner properties around the state.