The bluebonnets are (kind of) blooming in the Texas Hill Country

Driving to and from stories in Burnet, Llano and Fredericksburg comes with an extra bonus this time of year because bluebonnets and other wildflowers are in bloom.  These colorful flowers are sprouting up  along normally mundane stretches of highway.

Bluebonnets make a cameo on Highway 71 in Spicewood

There are also nice sprinkles of pink winecups and yellow coreopsis flowers dotting the roadsides as well.  But, we are early in wildflower season and there aren’t a lot of these flowers. It is more like patches here and there.

Last year, the Hill Country saw a bumper crop of bluebonnets. The wetter weather allowed the bluebonnet pods to grow in abundance at the right time.  A few months back, agriculture extension agent Wade Hibler showed me around Burnet and expressed his concern that few pods were found due to drought.  Nothing was sprouting when it should have been and he even seeded the area with store bought product.

The spotty presence of bluebonnets has many in the Hill Country asking, will we have a good crop this year?  Will this impact tourism?

These are all great questions and the answer will come in time.  Bluebonnets and other wildflowers usually reach their peak in the last week of April and different flowers sprout up in mid-May. So, we have roughly one month to see if we come close to what we had last year.

Wildflowers on April 19, 2010

The flowers were definitely beautiful last year and the local economy did benefit.   I can remember people hopping out of there cars along the highway to take pictures.  I have not seen one person yet.

Here are two pictures of what is growing so far in Burnet County.

A little yellow to spice things up

The little bluebonnets that could?