By Lorenzo Salinas

l.v.salinas@panews.com

Golden Triangle residents once more have a pleasant place to stop and smell the roses in a lush setting.

The Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center celebrated its grand reopening Wednesday at its location on 2111 West Park Ave. in Orange.

“This is the first day of really being open to the public on a regular basis since Aug. 24, 2017,” Director Rick Lewandowski said. “It feels fantastic.”

Closed for rainy days

Shangri La had closed in preparation for Tropical Storm Harvey when they had already experienced some minor flooding before Harvey made landfall.

“We shut down the foundation in order to let our employees take care of their personal cases,” Lewandowski said.

The storm delivered between 24 and 36 inches of water to the gardens and its facilities.

“All of our offices and occupy structure had to be completely gutted and renovated,” Lewandowski said. “In the garden, we received anywhere between 2 to 3 feet of water.”

Fortunately, the natural parts of the center fared much better than the manmade ones.

“The difference is that plants — at least the plants we grow — are adapted to our climate and conditions,” Lewandowski said.

Fresh vs. salt

In Lewandowski’s own words, the gardens recovered “remarkably well,” given the degree of flooding that had occurred. But he said some trees were lost after falling from inundated soil.

If there was a silver lining to the Harvey event, it was that the storm flooded Southeast Texas with fresh water instead of salt water. Lewandowski credited that to the garden’s remarkable recovery.

“It was rainwater that was flowing out to the Gulf,” he said. “With past storms like (Hurricane) Ike where they were surge storms, they brought in salt water which did horrible things to our plants.”

Effectively, salt water dries out plants by having the sodium content leech the moisture from their cells.

“Our primary allure or goal was to showcase the garden and nature,” Lewandowski said. “We did just fine on that front. It was the human side that had a lot of work that needed to be done.”

Coming back better

Lewandowski said all their buildings were nearly done, leaving services like IT work and furniture moving waiting to be completed.

He estimated that everything would be fully complete by the middle of October, hopefully in time for the center’s Scarecrow Festival.

With much of the garden returning for public view, Lewandowski highlighted some new features that were either already in place or slated to pop up later in the year.

“Most of it’s infrastructure improvements,” he said. “We’re making it much more convenient for visitors.”

New features include an improved parking lot, a better drop-off process for school buses and an expanded walkway to the Nature Discovery Center.

“We’re also in the process of renovating three or four new garden areas,” Lewandowski said. “Over the next several months, we’re going to expand garden interpretation and signage.”

Toward the future

Lewandowski and staff are planning accordingly for any future storms.

“Where possible, we hardened our infrastructure. We moved electric and other wiring up high so it’s not in the flood zone,” he said.

“We’ve also created breakaway walls so nothing can wick up above a certain height. In case it floods again and the water gets into the walls, we would only need to tear out certain portions of the walls.”

Lewandowski said it’s a wonderful feeling to welcome people back and to be able to see them during normal business hours again.

“We’ve had so many nice conversations with people who are equally happy to have us back open again, it’s a thrill,” he said. “It’s absolutely magical because we live to serve our community.”

Admission to Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center is free to the public. For more information, the center can be reached at 409-670-9113.