September Program:

Bluebonnet Presentation

Our keynote speaker for the September 22 Bluebonnet Celebration is Elizabeth Cannedy. A fifth generation Texan who grew up in Oklahoma, Liz returned to attend the University of Texas and has been in Austin for 25 years.

Her grandmother was a gardener and she passed along her love of plants and nature to Liz. Liz is a self-taught butterfly gardener who began learning about the stages of butterflies, from egg to adult, when her son, Drew, was a child. Each spring, Liz worked at Wildseed Farms in Fredericksburg as manager of the butterfly house where she replanted a 3,000 square foot garden from scratch. By April, the mesh- enclosed garden was home to hundreds of colorful and unusual butterflies. By May each year, almost 1,000 Texas native butterflies have enchanted visitors from Texas, across the country and beyond.

Through many seasons of building and managing butterfly houses and wildflower gardens, Liz is recognized as an expert who understands the nectar and host needs of butterflies, and she knows what kinds of plants butterflies like and how to grow them. Fortunately, many native Texas plants are butterfly favorites. Wildflowers are nature’s way of protecting and rejuvenating the earth, and butterflies are important pollinators for wildflowers because they are more random about their pollination than bees.

Wildseed Farms is the world’s largest working wildflower farm and is the primary supplier of bluebonnet seeds for Texas highways and beautification projects. Liz has extensive experience in planting bluebonnet and other wildflowers in Central Texas.

Liz’s current project is building a flight house for butterflies at Snooper’s Nursery in Round Rock. She is also immediate past president of the Zilker Garden Club.

Laura Joseph