Botanical Gardens
is sprouting

Second bucolic site is opening across the street

Monday, Feb. 19, 1996

Hints of spring can be seen at Corpus Christi Botanical Gardens. Other, less subtle, indications of change also are evident.

Wee green sprouts of wildflowers are pushing through the ground, Texas holly is bursting out in small yellow flowers and yucca trees are beginning to show their colors.

Coinciding with Mother Nature's renewal, additions of a different kind are springing up. A greenhouse and exhibit house are under construction as part of the new Botanical Gardens facilities being built on a 180-acre plot directly across Staples Street from the garden's original 110-acre site, which opened in 1987.

Already at the new site, along the southwest bank of Oso Creek at 8545 S. Staples St., nature trails are in place, wildflowers have been planted and a temporary visitors center is housed in a new administration building. Beginning this spring, visitors will find the majority of exhibits, including formal gardens and areas of native vegetation, being moved to or built at the new site. Cost over the next five years is projected at $2.5 million to $3 million, garden staff said.

Remaining open at the original site are the cottage garden, a nature trail and the Cox palapa, an open-air, thatched-roof structure.

Through April 20, visitors to both sites may tour the garden for free. Visitor hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Sign-in is at the new visitor center in the administration building of the new site.

With the continued southward spread of housing divisions and shopping centers, visitors will find the garden to be an oasis of "sumptuous tranquility," said Samuel W. Jenkin, garden executive director.

The botanical garden is 4« miles south of South Padre Island Drive, just past Oso Creek. Even when the surrounding area is developed, the garden will be a place to get away from city life, Jenkin said.

"In the midst of the urban sprawl we'll have almost 200 acres of wilderness for people to enjoy," Jenkin said. You can walk through formal gardens, wander through woods and high grasses on several miles of nature trails and meander into wetland areas.

The plot is one of the few undisturbed areas in the Tamaulipan Biotic Province, a region including South Texas and Northeastern Mexico with specific environmental characteristics. That makes it a prime spot for botanical research of this semi-arid area, Jenkin said.

It's also one of the few places where people can learn about the native landscape and the creatures that inhabit it, garden staff said.

Jenkin expects the number of visitors to the garden to rise from almost 10,000 in 1995 to 50,000 in several years. Some tourism watchers predict a boom for nature tourism in Texas in coming years.

"With 180 acres we'll have the opportunity to be a major botanical garden," he said. "This gives us one of the largest land masses (for botanical gardens) in the southern United States. It gives us the opportunity to develop this place to world-class status."

In 1986, developer Henry Tucker donated land to the Botanical Society and the garden opened a year later. However, the land was not fronted by a road and a small area of private land has been leased so the garden can be reached from Staples Street, said Paul Thornton, garden operations manager.

In March 1992, the city of Corpus Christi bought the 180 acres with a $600,000 Texas Parks and Wildlife Department grant. The Botanical Society donated to the city 90 acres of the original site. It now leases from the city the 180 acres and will continue to manage the original plot, garden staff said.

Additions to the new site will be made only when each project is fully funded, said planning committee members. Funds are being raised by the Botanical Society for the Upland Gardens Development Fund through foundations, grants, private donations and garden memberships. Development is expected to take a decade or more.

To make a donation to the development fund, stop by the garden or call 852-2100. Memberships range from $15 to $1,000 for individuals.

Visitors already are being welcomed at the new, $70,000 administration building that serves as a visitor center and includes the gift shop with hand-made crafts and a new community meeting room. Also there is office space and restrooms.

Already, children have been harvesting vegetables in the Children's Garden each spring and fall. There's also an adjacent play area.

The first of three greenhouses and the open-air exhibit house are expected to be completed by April at a cost of about $22,000. They are being built by trained volunteers and adult probationers participating in community service restitution.

The exhibit house consists of a central patio and four wings with lattice roofs that branch out from it. One wing will be available for garden clubs or individuals to set up displays and the other three are for Botanical Gardens exhibits, where visitors may see exotic plants that need shade from the summer sun, Thornton said.

The first major planting at the new site probably will be inside and outside in the exhibit house's extensive beds, Thornton said. Soon, wildflowers will bloom in front of the administration building and two rows of pink oleander costing $7,200 will be added to mark 1,100 feet of the garden's property line.

Also this spring, visitors, especially the visually and hearing impaired, will be able to enjoy the first major garden to be laid out, Thornton said. The sensory garden will appeal to the senses, so you can inhale the scent of mint or rootbeer and feel the needles of a cactus. The sound of dripping water may even be heard coming from a fountain as part of an artwork by local artist Danny O'Dowdy.

Visitors can walk through much of the property, from wetlands to woods, on several miles of nature trails, including a bird and butterfly trail.

Along the bird and butterfly trail you can stop at the bird watch tower overlooking Gator Lake and the Palapa Grande, a thatched-roof pavilion near the wetland area, where additional trails begin.

The quarter-mile bird and butterfly trail is lined with large, aged mesquites and yuccas, as well as native vegetation for mockingbirds, quail and turkey, such as peppers and lantana. When an open meadow is planted to attract more butterflies, walkers will pass a swarm of them, Thornton said. Signs will identify various plants along the trail.

On a recent day, raccoon tracks were found on the trail and mostly coots were on the three-acre lake, where herons, egrets and other birds often can be seen. Rooftops in nearby housing divisions also can be seen from the tower.

Palapa Grande stands at the edge of the wetland area that is so important as a feeding and watering spot for birds and animals, Thornton said. The palapa is a good place to rest in the shade and feel the breeze off the water. It has been used as a wedding site, he said.

The wetlands will be maintained and used "to teach about the importance of the wetlands to an ecology" that has adapted to the flood cycles, he said. Visitors may be able to walk through the wetlands on a series of planned boardwalks.

The Botanical Gardens' mix of rough nature and developed gardens is what gives it an identity, Thornton said. This is the only such garden south of San Antonio, he said. The semi-tropical, semi-arid climate makes it possible to plant tropicals in the ground, which visitors likely won't see in other gardens.

"Our design and purpose out here is to help develop an appreciation for what we're living in. Little of the original vegetation is left and this is a piece of it," he said.

The long-range planning committee still is working on a detailed map of the garden's future layout, said Nancy Elliott, committee chairwoman. Within five years, the committee hopes a new visitor center will be completed at the center of the property, Elliott said. Then, the entrance no longer will be from Staples Street but from Botanical Gardens Drive, a road not yet built.

In the next decade, visitors may find as many as eight more gardens, possibly including a formal garden centered on roses, a home garden area to demonstrate landscaping with vegetable plants and herbs, one featuring cacti and succulent plants and an aquatic garden. Three or four of the gardens should be developed by 2001, Elliott said.

The garden is one of 96 sites, 19 in Corpus Christi, that will be designated with signs as part of the 500-mile Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail. The sites are home to more than 400 species of birds, according to state officials.

Wildlife tourism, a $23 billion industry in 1995, is the fastest-growing segment of the state's tourism market, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. From 1980 to 1990, the draw of Texas nature activities grew by 63 percent.

The garden also is a member of the Watchable Wildlife program, a national network of wildlife viewing and eco-tourism areas.

Places like the Botanical Gardens can meet the growing market for people to get involved in and study the outdoors, said J. Don Clark, president of the Austin-based Texas Nature Tourism Association, which gives advice and assists providers of nature-based tourism services and facilities. The association has many members from South Texas, Clark said.

For people who have grown up in cities, it may offer an intriguing natural setting and area of activity for things like bird watching, hiking or study, Clark said. Several places across the state, including Arlington, Dallas/Fort Worth and Austin are developing nature and wildlife reserves and activities, Clark said.

"This nature stuff also has a sort of built-in excitement because you never know what you're going to see, what you're going to find," he said. "It can't be staged like so much of our lives are."

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