floral design & botanical blog

Spring Creek Forest Preserve

June 29, 2018 by Travis Ward in Plant Hunt

Spring Creek Forest Preserve is a protected greenspace managed by the City of Garland, saving this Blackland Prairie remnant from the development that has swallowed up the surrounding area. The primary topographic feature here is Spring Creek, which soon after meets Rowlett Creek and empties into Lake Ray Hubbard. The waterway is lined with buckeyes, juniper, and oaks, and this forest of native trees dominate the park. There is a clearing in a central area consisting of a few acres of shallow, limestone soils that support an abundance of native perennials, some of which were in bloom when I visited back in early May.

Cedar Ridge Preserve

May 13, 2018 by Travis Ward in Plant Hunt

Cedar Ridge Preserve is a 600 acre tract of land just southwest of downtown Dallas, adjacent to Cedar Hill State Park. The preserve is maintained by Audubon Dallas, including the 9 miles of trails among the hilly terrain of juniper and oak forest.

Ennis Bluebonnet Trails

April 17, 2016 by Travis Ward in Plant Hunt

One of Texas' most notable wildflowers, and the state flower, is Lupinus texensis, or Texas Bluebonnet, and there is a festival centered around this flower over one weekend in April each year in Ennis, Texas, a community about 30 miles south of Dallas.

Slaughter Creek

April 06, 2015 by Travis Ward in Hill Country, Plant Hunt

Spring blooms are just beginning to pop in the Texas Hill Country. I spent a little over an hour in the Slaughter Creek Metropolitan Park in the southern suburbs of Austin. This refuge consists mostly of shallow limestone juniper forests, all within a floodplain. Light rain in the morning hours had coated the blooms in an attractive misting of water.