At the Emily Ann Butterfly Festival in April I set up a display of currently blooming native flowers. I was at the Hays County Master Naturalist booth. My first thought when I was asked to put on my display this year (I have done it many times in past years) was, “Oh no, with the drought I don’t have many native plants blooming.”
However, as I walked around my front yard (deer accessible) and backyard (fenced in) I found many more wildflowers than I realized I had. Because people frequently ask me what they can grow that are deer resistant, I divided the wildflowers up as “deer don’t usually bother” and wildflowers in protected areas.
The wildflowers that bloom in the spring in open areas included Blackfoot Daisy, Mexican Hat, Navajo Tea, Bluebonnets, Two Leaf Senna, Cedar Sage, Verbena, Antelope Milkweed, Coreopsis, Lantana, Mealy Blue Sage, Damianita, Blue Eyed Grass. So you see, the deer do not “eat everything.” I found 13 native wildflowers blooming in my front yard. Being native, I never watered them, sprayed them, fertilized them or gave them any special care except for allowing the seeds to mature on the plant.
In my protected backyard I found the following wildflowers blooming: Prairie Penstemon, Columbine, Angel Trumpet (Datura), Coral Honeysuckle, Engelmann’s Daisy, Blue Curls, Indian Blanket (Gailardia), Pink Evening Primrose, and Texas Red Yucca. In addition to these 9 wildflowers that needed protection, there were some from the front yard that had volunteered to come up in the back.
One thing I learned in collecting these wildflowers is that Blue Eyed Grass does not open until the sun starts to go down! I saw this short blue, 1 cm in diameter flower in the evening and thought I would cut it in the morning before I left for the festival.
However, in the morning the flowers were closed!
Native wildflowers were not as numerous this year, but enough of them have survived to continue their presence in the Wimberley Valley.
Written by Jackie Mattice, Hays County Master Naturalist
