With visions in our heads of roadsides full of wildflowers and fields laden with bluebonnets we left the Houston area and headed west. Either we or Nell, the GPS, got confused and we left the highway system and drove into Texas country on backroads. At one point we saw flowers along the road and stopped for a picture but I was just looking for bluebonnets. These were too purple. At 12:36 pm, beyond Navasota and northeast of Brenham, TX, we found what we thought was our first of many fields lush with bluebonnets. As it turned out, this was the first of two sightings for the entire trip!
We would soon learn that the drought of 2011 was being compared to a most serious one in the 1950s. This has ravaged the growing cycle of the bluebonnets as well as other wildflowers.
In an article in the University of Texas at Austin internet site, there still seemed to be some hope on March 8, 2011
"I'm cautiously optimistic at this point and think it's going to be a decent year, just not a banner year," said Damon Waitt, who also is the center's senior director. "The expected early spring mix of wildflowers will likely be there, but in smaller numbers than last year because of inadequate rain during their growing season."AUSTIN, Texas — Little rain last fall in much of Texas means bluebonnets and other early spring wildflowers will not be as impressive as last year's display, according to the senior botanist at The University of Texas at Austin's Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
Added to the picture is cold weather that hit many regions, so that the center's plant conservationists have found little evidence of native wildflowers ready to bloom yet in the Hill Country, North or West Texas. Similar conditions have been reported by others in Tyler County in East Texas, near Corpus Christi, and near Brenham, which had two cold snaps in recent months.
A bright spot is that last year's bumper crop of wildflowers meant more seeds were produced that could come up a year or two down the road with good fall rains. And added rain this spring would boost the growth of bluebonnets already growing in Brenham and elsewhere. That rain would also provide a shot at a great show of mid- to late-summer bloomers such as Mexican hat, blackfoot daisy and golden tickseed in Central Texas.
At the Tourist Information Center in Brenham, TX, we were given a map of the usual circle tour for seeing the wildflowers. One area was highlighted and it was the field we had seen completely by chance.
The second and last site was next to a McDonalds where we had stopped for fuel. A few little patches of bluebonnets were being visited by a grandmother, mother, and child. It was explained to me that a Texas custom is to get each child's picture each year in the bluebonnets. They had come to the outskirts of Brenham from Austin looking for a picture. We told them how to find "our" field on their way back east.
Little Ms. Grace
Grace and her mom meet Isabel
Grace and her grandmom
Is she thinking, "Now why did you have to tell them about that field?"
Flat Stanley would have a time in the flowers at the Wildflower Seed farm. See future Blog!
Oh, yes. The upscale way to get a bluebonnet portrait is to hire a professional photographer who will meet you in a field. Wonder what they're all doing this year?
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