A magnificent wildflower crop this year marked her final spring. And even though she couldn’t see them very well, “she would touch them and smell them,” during regular visits to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, said Joe Hammer, a longtime Johnson friend and a director at the center.

Johnson, the widow of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, died Wednesday in her Austin home of natural causes. She was 94. Planned floral arrangements at her funeral services will be full of native Texas wildflowers, organizers said.

While her vision was blurred, she could still make out the brilliant purple, orange and blue hues of the state’s native flowers.

“She got a nice farewell spring. It’s been one of the most spectacular springs we’ve ever had in Texas,” said Andrea DeLong-Amaya, the center’s director of horticulture.

Her favorite flower was the lavender-hued bluebell, in full bloom this time of year, DeLong-Amaya said.

“She really chose the right time to go,” said Wanda Lancaster, a longtime center volunteer, clipping stems of delicate mountain pinks for an arrangement. Earlier in the day, Lancaster helped prepare three large floral arrangements, teeming with Johnson’s beloved bluebells to sit in front of her portrait in the center’s gallery, where a private Eucharist was to be held Friday.

And while the state’s storied bluebonnets are usually long gone this late in the year, center staff were surprised Thursday to find a few blooms had popped up to say goodbye, DeLong-Amaya said.

“We were just noticing this morning that there were some bluebonnets still blooming ... it was a nice little farewell to her,” she said. “The cooler weather and rain both combined to get one last kick out of the bluebonnets.”