Category: Education and Outreach

Education and Outreach to Community

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WilcoScape has been updated!

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The WilcoScape Team is pleased to announce recent enhancements to WilcoScape, our chapter’s native plant database. WilcoScape helps you choose, locate, and grow native Texas plants that thrive in Williamson County.

  • The most significant enhancement is the newly added Category filter set. 
    • The Easy to Find & Grow category includes the plants that are the easiest to find in nurseries and the easiest for you to grow successfully. 
    • The More Favorites category provides you with more native plants we recommend for Williamson County, but these may be a little harder to find or grow.
    • The third category is Consider Carefully. It also includes some great native plants, but the plant information needs to be evaluated carefully before adding them to your wish list.
  • We have also updated plant descriptions to indicate the different types of gardens or naturalized areas each plant is recommended for, providing another way to help you succeed with using native plants. Additionally, we added 40 more native plants recommended for Williamson County.

Many of the plants we recommend can be found at our chapter’s wildly popular native plant sales including the sale that is starting today, September 29. See Fall 2025 Native Plant Sale to find the latest native plant sale information.

Please visit WilcoScape and use the Contact Us link provided on the WilcoScape page footer to send us any feedback on your experience or suggestions for improvement.

Best,
The WilcoScape Team
– Gary Bowers and Randy Pensabene

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Lindheimer Chapter’s Wildscapes Workshop September 27, 2025

News from the Lindheimer Chapter:

What is a “wildscape”? A wildscape is simply a landscape designed to provide habitat for wildlife from bees and butterflies to birds and beyond, supporting a healthy community based on natural relationships.  Want to learn more?

On September 27th, the Lindheimer Chapter will commemorate its 25th Anniversary by hosting a Wildscapes Workshop at the Tye Preston Memorial Library, located at 16311 S. Access Road, Canyon Lake, Texas.  This all-day event includes educational presentations, guided native plant walks, a raffle, and ends with a native plant sale.  Workshop attendees will have exclusive early access to the plant sale.

Presentations include:

– Nessa Spence of Ripples and Roots Wildscaping and MicroLife will present: The Soil Solution: Restoring Texas Wildscapes with Underground Ecology.

– Susan James (NPSOT, Master Naturalist) will present: Surrendering to Nature: Getting More by Doing Less, an anecdotal and site-specific presentation.

– Andrea DeLong-Amaya, Director of Horticulture at the LBJ Wildflower Center will present: Beauty and the Bees: Understanding pollinators and designing landscapes to support them.  She is also the author of The Texas Native Plant Primer: 225 Plants for an Earth-Friendly Garden.  Copies of her book will be available for sale as part of the event and attendees will have the opportunity to get their copies signed.

Check-in begins at 9:30 AM, the event begins at 10:00, and ends with a plant sale.  Workshop attendees will have exclusive early access to the plant sale.

Pricing:
Member: $50
Non-Member: $65

The registration fee includes refreshments and a boxed lunch.  Those that register by September 12th will receive a free event t-shirt.  Please bring your water bottle, sunscreen, and dress appropriately for the outdoor guided plant walk.

Proceeds from the event will benefit the expansion of the Native Seed Library Program statewide and the Native Plant Rescue Project, currently expanding into Comal County.

Register to attend at this link on the Society’s state site.

The Lindheimer Chapter website is here.

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Announcing “WilcoScape”- a native plant database for Williamson County, Texas

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WilcoScape – Discover native plants for a beautiful Texas yard

The NPSOT-Wilco chapter is excited to announce the launch of “WilcoScape,” a website dedicated to native Texas plants recommended for Williamson County.

WilcoScape was developed by the Williamson County Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas (NPSOT-Wilco) for residents of Williamson County who want a clear, concise, and user-friendly guide to landscaping with native Texas plants. It showcases plants native to Williamson County and species from other regions of Texas that thrive in our soils and climate, supporting local wildlife and enhancing your landscape while conserving water. 

To learn more about WilcoScape, attend our July 10th chapter meeting in person or via Zoom (details in this meeting announcement).

To explore WilcoScape, from any page on our chapter website, select [WilcoScape] from the menu at the top, and enjoy the discovery.