The bright yellow blossoms of an Esperanza bush outside the Dining Room at La Hacienda Treatment Center.
La Hacienda’s 40-acre Texas Hill Country campus is naturally attractive, and over the years management and grounds crews have worked to enhance that asset.
In addition to the beauty of the cedar and oak covered hills, hardy and colorful native plants are strategically placed around the grounds. Different varieties of flora provide continuous, colorful displays from spring through fall.
During the summer and early fall, a tall bush with bright, tubular yellow flowers captures the viewer’s attention
A Resilient Reminder of Hope
The plant is technically named Tecoma stans, but popularly called Esperanza, Spanish for “hope.’
Esperanza is a hardy plant, blooming with or without rainfall. In winter, it may freeze back to its roots, but it will grow to bloom the next summer.
In his book Trees, Shrubs & Woody Vines of the Southwest, Robert Vines says Esperanza was long known and used by the Native American and Mexican peoples of the Southwest and Mexico for bowmaking, bee fodder, and medicines.
The Esperanzas at La Hacienda are indeed popular with bees and other nectar gatherers. And to patients–who come here in the hope of finding a cure for addiction—they can serve as a reminder of that aspiration.
