Texas wildflower Bloom Day
For Garden Bloggers Bloom Day in central Texas this month, nothing can outdo Mother Nature’s garden. (My own is shrouded in oak pollen.) So here are more pictures from last Saturday’s drive on RR 1323 and the Willow City Loop through the Hill Country. Above, Indian paintbrush sprinkled with bluebonnets and Texas groundsel makes a picturesque carpet along the highway.
Down in a patch of paintbrush and bluebonnets
Imagine a cool light breeze, warm sunshine, a field of blue, and sweetly scented air. That’s what it was like when I leaned on a rusty fence rail to snap this picture.
I hope you are not tiring of bluebonnets yet! Here they grew beneath a barbed wire fence, and you can see the rolling Hill Country landscape in the distance.
White prickly poppy glowed incandescently among the bluebonnets.
A closer look
On the Willow City Loop, at least a hundred bikers pedaled along the scenic highway, some stopping to take pictures in the wildflowers too.
Spring green and a haze of blue in the background—more bluebonnets!
My daughter found this white and black-spotted moth on a fence post. Its fine white cloak elicited admiration.
But enough about moths. Back to bluebonnets.
They look good with everything, including prickly pear.
More!
OK, if that’s too much bluebonnet adulation for you, how about some red corn poppies? We stopped in Fredericksburg at Wildseed Farms and found this field sown with crimson poppies, with two pink flowers, taller than the red ones, mixed in.
Serendipitously, the pink poppies gave a focal point to the sea of red. Sometimes the happiest designs are completely accidental.
For more images from last Saturday’s Hill Country wildflower safari, click here. To see what’s blooming in other gardens around the world on this date, visit May Dreams Gardens.
All material © 2006-2010 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
Red and pink are great together since they share the same underlying pigment. Throw some purple in there too and I’m even happier. I often wonder why anyone would bother to grow any annuals in the garden besides wildflowers. They can’t be beat.
I’m impressed by how thickly your wildflowers grow. In some of the pictures, the growth is so thick, there isn’t even any grass!
That moth sure elicits my admiration. Do you think that white cloak helps to camouflage it on some surface?
The wildflowers don’t always put on this good a show, Chuck. But after two sparse springs due to drought, they got a lot of rain this winter and came roaring back, thicker and taller than I’ve ever seen them. —Pam
Well I’ll be. I was just asked by someone who had lived in Texas if the flowers on the side of the road we were driving on (in California) were Texas bluebonnets and I said no they were lupine. And now I see your pictures and see bluebonnets are a type of lupine. Much showier than most of our native ones. They look great. And great photos.
Yep, they’re Lupinus texensis, Brad. They are showy but not as tall as most people expect when they see them in person for the first time. —Pam
if there’s a benefit to living in texas, it’s the wildflowers! i am in heaven, looks like you are too.
Ah Texas wildflowers! I lived in Dallas for one very unhappy year (I moved for a job I learned to hate), but the memory of the wildflowers still makes me happy.
Some photos of mine, from Houston:
http://howsrobb.blogspot.com/2008/03/southern-hospitality-letterboxing-in.html
Mother Nature does an amazing job for you in Texas!
Oh Pam, I can only imagine seeing these fields of color in person! Jaw dropping beauty.
How blessed you are to live so close to such beauty, and no, we are not tired of seeing it.
I can hear Alice telling someone to get the red paint out before the Queen sees the pink poppies sticking up there. What an amazing sight. All of it.
Ha, yes, how very Alice in Wonderland. —Pam
Just gorgeous! I hope they bloom for a long time!
Pam, these are really lovely shots of fields…it’s such a joy that places like this still exist today. The blooms are breathtaking…I would bike on this path too!
Happy bloom day!
What fabulous photos. A couple of years ago we timed a visit to our daughter near Houston to coincide with the Bluebonnet Festival in Chappell Hill. It was a long drive and we waited a long time before we started seeing any bluebonnets. By the time we arrived the 2 boys were ready for kettle corn and giant turkey drumsticks. The festival wasn’t quite what I expected – so many vendors of everything – and the weather was cold! However I discovered the Belinda’s Dream rose which was great and we had a good time. On the way home I made everyone sit down by the side of the road so I could get a photo of them amidst the bluebonnets – and Kate found out she was sitting on a red ant hill. She did suffer for my art.
Going on an all-day bluebonnet gazing expedition with kids can be challenging. My own two got pretty bored by the end of the day, but ah well—Sunday drives are a classic family pastime. —Pam
Those colors are absolutely lovely!
Beautiful photos. I love the pink and red poppies, and never tire of the bluebonnets!
OMG! When can I come visit? WOW. I love wildflowers. I would churn up half my yard and plant them if I could. Thank you THANK YOU for sharing these gorgeous pictures with us!
Happy Bloom Day!
What a magnificent display.
Pam your pictures are stunning. I would love to see all that beauty in person.
Wow! Is there a subtext of bluebonnets or what? I love this post, it is so beautiful. The moth is lovely, but I have to admit that when I look at moths I have to wonder what plants the caterpillars are eating. . .
Glad I stopped by for this taste of very serene blueness of blue.
Wow Pam! I actually gasped. Amazing photographs, and I could only WISH to have my lupine fill in our hillsides with that much blue. Amazing…
One of the pictures was of our ranch in the background. Our family is fortunate to have a nice ranch right in the most beautiful part of Texas!
You are fortunate indeed, Brent. That is a beautiful place to live. —Pam
Never too many wildflowers, LOVE your pictures. Hope you save a few for refreshment when we’re in the August furnace.
Thanks for including the moth. Great photo, and your daughter must be in tune for it to stay on her finger.
Would it be considered trite to sigh at the beauty or to exclaim over and over again, “What absolutely wonderful photos!?! gail
Hi Pam, I posted a link to this post on the Facebook Texas Hill Country fan site. Thought it was too good not to share with more folks who love the Hill Country.
Thanks, Kathleen! —Pam
Spectacular wildflowers! You are so lucky to have this bounty in the fields. Thanks for sharing!
Beautiful photos. What better for a Texas springtime Bloomday, than our beautiful wildflowers.
The only thing that would make your scenic trip even better might be a hammock stretched out under some of those live oaks, and some Texas BBQ!
Yes, indeed! Did you see the link to my first post about this day? I included some BBQ images from our lunch that day. —Pam
Some gardening friends drove out to Texas last year to see this. They said it was spectacular. That white moth is awesome.
And last year was considered an off-year, Philip. I wish your friends could see it this year. —Pam
I can’t get enough of those Texas wildflowers! Sorry about your oak pollen. I’m hoping ours and yours quits soon.
Oh, now that’s what I’m talking about. How can you beat Indian Paintbrush and Bluebonnets? Gorgeous.
The bluebonnets are a spectacular blue. The Indian paintbrush is such a hot red. Lovely to see. Thanks for sharing today. Valerie
Wow, Pam, those photos are amazing. Mother Nature certainly has outdone herself down there in Texas. Happy Bloom Day.
Marvelous photos. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the wildflowers as pretty as they have been this spring.
Gorgeous! Hard to believe that all of those bluebonnets and poppies are growing wild. Must’ve been a lovely ride.
Beautiful Bluebonnets. They don’t grow here, the soil is too acid. I have seen prickly poppies on the railroad right of way near town.
Simply Awesome!
This year we were so blessed to have so many wildflowers, it almost reduces one to tears to see such beauty. I am so happy to see that you share the beauty with the rest of the world. There can not be a better advertisement for our great state of Texas! Thanks! Pamie G. Hill Country USA!!
I think you must be right on Mother Nature’s prolific display of color. Very patriotic also. I think if I should get to Austin, it should be in springtime to see these spectacles.
Well, I guess your Texas countryside has to look pretty sometime!
Ha! A grudging acknowledgment from the Grump, leading me to conclude it knocked your socks off. 😉 —Pam
Those flowers are bright!
That’s pretty amazing. Looks like that frosty, rainy weather was good for something…
Most beautiful. Thanks for the wildflower drive Pam.
Just lovely!