Bluebonnets, bluebonnets, bountiful bluebonnets

Sometimes Nature really surprises you. After the drought last summer, which lasted until the middle of the winter, who could believe all those little bluebonnet plants were germinating and hunkering down and ready to go!

Spring color on a ranch just east of Navasota.

Even nore surprising, the old natives, nearly wiped out by years of local farmers treating their pastures with pesticides and herbicides and rich fertilizers, have emerged in an amazing comeback. I have never seen so much of the native species (lupinus subcarnosus) as this year, and they have had a... FIELD DAY!

Right now the wildflowers are weeks ahead of their regular blooming schedule. The "road" bonnets are past prime, starting to produce seed pods, and the "field" bonnets are starting to fill out.. they will peak in about a week.

Taken adjacent to the Old Baylor Park in Independence, patches of primary color plaster the pastures... but the cultivated bluebonnets inside the park have been disappointing for a couple of years.

A golden.. blue morning...

A typical scene these days in Washington County, between Navasota and Brenham.

This shot shows the amazing proximity between two different species of the bluebonnet: The "road bonnets" in the foreground are a hybrid of lupinus texenus, cultivated by the Texas Highway Dept, the blue streak in tbe background is the lupinous subcarnosus...

And watch out for bicyclists! They are all over the place! The bluebonnets here are the natives, the original "State Flower," (lupinus subcarnosus) an early blooming, slightly faded solid blue, straight growing variety, which always announces spring, and usually a week or more before the other native varieties, such as lupinus texenus. Note the rich rusts and yellows of the huisache grove in the background.