Wildseed Farms
Wildseed Farms caught me by surprise. Anyone with an ounce of nostalgia will find the drive through the Hill Country near Fredericksburg, Texas to the farm a thing of beauty. The long fields of flowers appear to call for people to come and play in them. As the largest working wildseed farm in the United States, Wildseed Farms is 200 acres of 88 varieties of flowers. With such gorgeous fields to dream in, over 350,000 people stop by to gaze at the fields and take photographs. The company developed a visitor center to welcome people with walking trails through the fields, and pick-your-own bouquet fields. A Market Center provides a place to buy seed packets and garden tools. The Brewbonnet Biergarten provides a place to have a bite to eat and some liquid refreshment. It has now become a destination in it’s own right, rather than a stop along the way to somewhere else. But for me, the real delight was the Butterfly Haus. A 3,000 square-foot screed in structure provides a magical habitat for thousands of native butterflies and the plants that they like the best. An educational center provides a place to watch as eggs are laid, caterpillars spin into chrysalises, and then become beautiful butterflies. A trip to Wildseed Farms is worth the drive. In the end, Wildseed Farms was the big bloomer.
