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I sat with two other Native Plant Society of Texas members among the thousands of other people there. We had received our presidential-seal-embossed invitations, had weathered metal detectors, protestors and finding appropriate dress for the occasion. (I was pretty sure “office dress” did not mean my best pair of blue jeans.)
It was Nov. 16, 2010, and I found myself at the groundbreaking ceremony for the George W. Bush Presidential Library on the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas.
Earlier that morning, we met with renowned landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh and his staff to discuss native plants for the Bush library site. Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has the contract to create the landscape design for the library.
The firm’s plans for the library grounds are to create a landscape that is ecologically rich and environmentally sustainable, while providing a dynamic experience in every season of the year. Plans include a stone seep, bioswale, wildflower meadow, wet prairie and irrigation cistern system that works with an on-site storm-water management system.
The Dallas Chapter was contacted to work with the team to help select plants for a high-profile terrace area. After a flurry of e-mails to our newly elected, and symposium-drained, state President Cynthia Maguire and area chapters, our then-Dallas Chapter President, Karen Huston, pulled together an advisory team.
Representing the Native Plant Society of Texas were David Hopman, associate professor at the University of Texas at Arlington Landscape Architecture Program; Dr. Peter Scharr, landscape designer and current president of the Dallas Chapter; and me, Carol Feldman, landscape architect.
Mark Simmons and Emily Manderson of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center have been assisting with the prairie planting aspects of the plan.
The original terrace plan was filled with plants native to the High Plains dessert. It was a great look and a great plan for West Texas and Arizona, but, generally, the plants required less rain than we get in North Central Texas. Instead, the team suggested ornamental trees such as the Texas persimmon, Eve’s necklace, Mexican buckeye, Mexican plum, lacey oak and sumacs. Canopy trees included Texas ash, cedar elm and bur oak.
North Central Texas shrub suggestions included yuccas, flame acanthus, agarita, American beautyberry and dwarf yaupon holly as a required hedge. Non-shrub alternatives included grasses—Lindheimer’s muhly and Indian grass—or massing of some perennials such as mistflower or mealy blue sage.
Sun perennials and groundcovers included wooly stemodia and artemesia, with golden groundsel, Turk’s cap, columbine and inland sea oats for shade. As with any good landscape design, the plan is being worked and reworked. It is still a work in progress.
As Native Plant Society members, we have various opportunities to volunteer and advocate for native plants. And in the beginning, I must confess, I didn’t think this should have been volunteer work.
But in the end, it’s a matter of exposing the public to the benefits of native plants. For that reason, I was happy to join other members in a partnership with the George W. Bush Presidential Library and the Michael Van Valkenburgh firm to create another prominent showplace for native plants in North Central Texas.
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**ARCHIVED POST AUTHOR: Carol Feldman
