Kudela & Weinheimer is honored to be the designers for the Butterfly Garden at St. Luke’s The Woodlands Hospital. The goal of this ½ acre project is to provide a peaceful, beautiful area for patients and their family members to relax and reflect. The space includes trellises, berms, benches with donor names engraved on them, and donation pavers throughout. The garden also features plants that are not only native and adaptive to the area but also attract butterflies, it overlooks the lake adjacent to the hospital. Butterfly gardens supply food and shelter for all phases of a butterfly’s life which includes caterpillar food plants, butterfly nectar plants and sunshine. Stones incorporated into the garden are helpful because they absorb some of the heat and provide a basking spot. Damp and shady areas are also needed for them to get water and retreat when temperatures get too hot. Butterflies are cold blooded creatures and need warm (but not too hot) resting places. Both nectar plants and host plants (where butterflies will lay their eggs) are needed. Butterflies tend to lay their eggs on the underside of leaves. Plants they like include lantana which is very heat tolerant, milkweed, zinnias, butterfly bushes, pentas, salvia, batface cuphea, verbena, coreopsis, and fire bush. Perennials they enjoy include Echinacea, lavender, joe-pye weed and penstemmon. This is a donor funded project through St. Luke’s and is one of many examples of how St. Luke’s utilizes donations to touch the lives of patients.
If you would like to give a gift to St. Luke’s to see this or other projects come to fruition, please contact Mr. James Nicas at the St. Luke’s Foundation, 832.355.5857! St. Luke’s The Woodlands is located on the west side of I-45 at College Park Drive, in The Woodlands of Course. K&W has worked on other projects for this hospital including the front drop off expansion area and the Main Street Extension. Sr. Project Manager Wesley Salazar continues to manage this interesting project.