Linda Haines, pharmacy operations manager at Houston Methodist Hospital, planned quarterly mental-health days out for the residents she supervises. Those trips stopped abruptly in 2020. This week, Haines decided it was time to resume the mental health days. She picked the new Houston Botanic Garden as the place where they’d volunteer. It’d be safe, she figured: They’d be outside, would have plenty of room for social distancing, and would wear their masks.

Houston has long been a hub for visionary ideas in medicine, energy, manufacturing and aeronautics. That same forward-thinking spirit inspired a group of Houstonians to work for more than 30 years to bring to their city a botanic garden like those they had witnessed firsthand having a positive impact in other communities around the globe.