2nd Annual Wildflower Report

First and foremost, this report has no scientific basis.  I am, afterall, a heavily right-brand floral designer.  In fact, I'm not so certian even the local news stations' wildflower reports are based on any kind of scientific data other than a newbie report cruising through the Hill Country with their neck craned out the open window to determine if, in fact, the paint brush or blanket flower is the reigning king of the roadsides this year.  So it is in this spirit of reporting, I give you my humble findings:  Bluebonnets are it!  At least the weekend I was wildflower peeping. Here's the thing:  the wildflowers come in a progression.  Bluebonnets are first, low to the ground in the shiny new Spring grass.  Paint brush comes next, followed by the primrose, and lastly the Blanket flower--which is tall enough to reach above the tops of the weeds which, by late Spring, have shot up in earnest.

I nearly missed the flowers this year.  As luck would have it, a wedding out in Horseshoe bay pulled me out West. It took me nearly two hours to get home after I delivered the wedding since I kept stopping to snap pics.  I also learned a little something new:  An older fellow, also pulled curbside with camera in hand, asked if I was from Texas.  When I answered "No." he then asked if I'd ever seen a Cat's claw?  And since I hadn't he knelt down in the grass, and grabbed a bloom on the stem of the bluebonnet.  For a minute there I thought he was going to squeeze the throat and make its mouth open (like a snapdragon--ya know?)  But instead, he pulled back what I can only describe accurately as the flower's "foreskin", to reveal this pretty viscous looking "claw."  It wasn't sharp, and I can't for the life of me think of any Darwinian reason why it should exist, but there you have it. Also, bluebonnets have SCENT.  Who knew?  It was a particularly humid, hot day, and the perfume was just wafting off the roadsides.  Incredible!  Take a look:

 

Boom.

I particularly like the juxtaposition of fireworks & firetrucks in this one.

I miss the Fall in New England.  But, when we get rain in Texas, nothing beats the Spring.