Texas Bucket List – Flowers ~ Blogging Through The Alphabet

Texas is beautiful in the spring and summer. There are flowers everywhere. Well, until the heat hits. Then there are still plenty of flowers, just not quite the same covering of them as springtime.

Bluebonnets
Indian Paintbrushes
Primroses
Indian Blankets
Mexican Hats
. . . and the list goes on.

Here is a list of many of the wildflowers found in Texas.

The Texas landscape is well know for the carpeting of bluebonnets that happens every spring. Some years, they are thicker and brighter than others but they appear each year. Their bright blue and white brings smiles to everyone and bring out the inner photographer of parents. I doubt there are many children growing up in Texas that don’t have their pictures taken each spring in a patch of bluebonnets. In fact, my children actually insist even before I do that we have to take an annual bluebonnet picture.

Mixed within those bluebonnets, you almost always find Indian Paintbrushes. I grew up with Indian Paintbrushes in New Mexico so it was surprising to me to find that they are almost in a symbiotic relationship with bluebonnets. I don’t know what it is but they are always found together. Even in places I know have been seeded with bluebonnets, you find an Indian Paintbrush or two.

Primroses are so pretty. They come up behind our house in our little ditch. We also used to have a gorgeous thick area of Indian Blankets but they were mowed down by the HOA before the seeded one year and so they no longer grow there. I have tried to seed them but without luck so far.

Do you know who Lady Bird Johnson is? She was the First Lady and one of her passions was wildflowers and beautification. She worked hard to make the nation beautiful and it has become her legacy. Check out some of the resources regarding Lady Bird Johnson.

Biography Channel video and article about Lady Bird
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
First Lady Biography on Lady Bird Johnson
PBS article on the beautification campaign

A couple of years ago, we visited a wildflower farm down in the Texas Hill Country area. Even though it was mid-June and the heat was hitting, there were still plenty of lovely flowers to enjoy. It was interesting to see acres and acres of flowers and know that they were making it possible for the flowers to continue across the years. We picked up some seeds at their store, too.

Wildflowers make people smile and it always makes me sad when they get cut down before they have a chance to seed. Yes, the plant gets kind of ugly in the seeding process but the seeds will allow the beauty to continue in the coming years. So, please, don’t cut them down before they have seeded! And we will all enjoy the beautification that Lady Bird worked so hard towards for many years to come.

Blessings,
At Home.

Previous articles in the series:
A – Abilene’s Storybook Sculpture Project 
B – Big Bend
C – Congress Avenue Bridge and the Bat Colony
D – Dr Pepper Museum
E – Enchanted Rock

 

This is a weekly series and will be linked weekly with the Blogging Through The Alphabet co-hosts:
Amanda at Hopkins Homeschool
Kirsten at Doodle Mom
Jennifer at Worth a Bowed Head
Kimberley at Vintage Blue Suitcase
Desiree at Our Homeschool Notebook
Markie at My Life As Mrs. Cooks
Hilary at Walking Fruitfully

Tagged: ABC blogging, field trips, nature, Texas, travel/trips