Many people, especially newcomers to Texas, do not realize that many of our favorite wildflowers that bloom in the spring, must be planted in the fall. That is true for Texas’ state flower, the Bluebonnet. (By the way, I just learned that the bluebonnet had a lot of competition for this honor. It seems that it had to win out over such hot competition as the open cotton boll and the blossom of the prickly pear cactus. Both of these flowers are beautiful, but would you really want them to be our state flower over the bluebonnet?)
I usually plant bluebonnet seeds in mid-October up until mid-November. So now, if you are driving around and noticing some green patches in the area of dead grass, you may very well be looking at bluebonnets showing their initial growth. That is how I discovered a large patch coming up in an area near my neighborhood.
This patch is in what I call Gentry’s grove, just to the right as you enter Spoke Hollow Road. Gentry was a young man who saved a large chunk of green space from being bulldozed when a new road was being built on what is now known as Spoke Hollow.
This somewhat oval space with oak and cedar trees might be about one fifth of an acre. After Gentry died, Jim Miller, a resident on Spoke Hollow, further rescued the spot by further salvaging its native trees and grasses.
Jim has manicured the area by some weeding and mowing. He has also been generous with wildflower seeding. It was just recently when I had to walk in the area for some reason, that I realized I was walking on a mass of bluebonnets coming up. I can hardly wait for them to bloom this spring. You will truly enjoy them and we have Jim Miller to thank for them.
Maybe next fall, each of us could gather a few bluebonnet seeds, purchased, of course, because the spring seeds will all have seeded in their immediate area, and we can add a few bluebonnets to our own neighborhood. This is just one way we can all still Keep Wimberley Beautiful.
Written by Martha Knies
