Colorful palettes of bluebonnets and other wildflowers are popping up on Texas Hill Country highways and landscapes as the 2024 wildflower season begins to blossom in full bounty.
Peak wildflower viewing typically occurs in early April, but it might be here a bit early this year, according to Andrea DeLong Amaya, director of horticulture at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin.
Along the highways and back roads where the asphalt reflects heat, bluebonnets are making an early and dramatic appearance.
A recent drive from Mason to Fredericksburg in the Hill Country had the upright purple blossoms lining up along the pavement’s edge on U.S. Highway 87. Asters, phlox and Indian blanket were less abundant but threaded through the flower blanket between the road and private property fences.
“On a scale from one to 10, this year looks like it could be an eight, for bluebonnets in particular, if not even better,” said DeLong Amaya. “It’ll be a great year — always with the caveat that it’s weather-dependent. If it stays dry, the party will shut down. A good rain in the next week or two should help.”
While the drought of last summer was tough on plants, it likely helped this spring’s wildflower display, according to Matt O’Toole, the wildflower center’s director of land management.
“When we have extreme weather the prior summer, we see some plant mortality, which reduces competition in the soil and creates space for spring blooming wildflowers,” O’Toole said in a Feb. 21 press release.
Meg Inglis, executive director of the Native Plant Society of Texas, lives outside Dripping Springs. She agreed that drought, while damaging, can also help native plants.
“A lot of grasses were beaten back by the drought. When the grasses die back, that gives light and space for the annuals like bluebonnets to move in,” she explained, adding that “the opportunity is there because they’re not crowded out by other plants at this point.”
The Texas Department of Transportation sows an estimated 30,000 pounds of wildflower seed at a budgeted cost of $60,000 per year, according to Tanya Brown, an agency spokesperson for TxDOT. Visitors from all over the U.S. travel here to join the locals in enjoying the colorful display that erupts each spring.
Apart from their showy flowers, native plants and wildflowers fuel the ecosystem by conserving water, controlling erosion and providing habitat and food for wildlife.
Bluebonnets, a type of legume, are nitrogen fixers, contributing to soil improvement by making nitrogen, an essential element for plant growth, available.
Interestingly, if you see red coloration on a bluebonnet, it means that particular flower has aged and is less attractive to bees and other pollinators, which are drawn to the bullseye of the younger white flowers closer to the top of the plant. There, the pollen and nectar are more abundant.
Monarch butterflies arrive from their Mexican overwintering roosts during wildflower season and will seek out milkweeds like Antelope Horns on which to lay their initial rounds of eggs to launch the first generation of butterflies in their multi-generational migration.
TxDOT has been managing roadsides for wildflowers since the 1930s, when the state agency hired landscape architect Jac Gubbels to maintain, preserve and encourage wildflowers and other native plants along rights of way. The wildflower management approach has been in place since 1934.
For a free, 170-page “Grass, Weed and Wildflower Guide” to assist those interested in identifying plants, check out TxDOT’s website.
The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center offers a useful online resource that directs visitors to the best drives for enjoying the seasonal displays. Appropriately labeled “Honey, Stop the Car,” the webpage details seven different wildflower drives, from the Panhandle to the Big Bend. For more general wildflower info, see their Texas Wildflower Central page.
Social media is another good option for checking out current wildflower conditions.
“Interstate 37 south of San Antonio to at least Exit 125, especially just north of there, is loaded with bluebonnets and other wildflowers on either side of the interstate,” wrote Leza Davis Cutforth in a March 12 Facebook post on the 28,000-member Texas Bluebonnets and Wildflowers page. Another timely Facebook option: the Bluebonnets of Texas page.
On X, formerly Twitter, Traces of Texas posted on March 11 that “The bluebonnets are already out in George West, Texas.” Followers responded with enthusiastic reports of bluebonnet sightings elsewhere in the Lone Star State.
A search of the hashtag #bluebonnetseason on Instagram returns myriad snapshots of the classic spring poses: couples hugging in a field of bluebonnets, dramatic sunsets against a backdrop of bluebonnets and reluctant dogs forced to pose in a mass of bluebonnets.
“I really don’t like sitting down on this stuff, Daddy!” posted Badger the Blue Merle on Instagram, when his owner insisted the canine sit in a field of the purple legumes.
