Time for Blue Bonnets?

[Bill_1856]

When would I be most likely to see the Blue bonnet bloom in Texas this year? Any particular place to look, or just the "hill country" in general?

[msk2193]

Wilhelm,
You are about a week or two away from the full bloom season.
You have the hill Country and around Dallas you have Ennis with its trails.

[Darren H]

No bluebonnets in north Texas yet. I am looking every day for the first signs but we had a cold winter her and everything seems 7-10 days later this year. We normally have the bradford pears blooming by Feb 28 but it was March 10th before they popped this year.

I expect that April 3-4 will see them going well in the hill country and by the 10-17 all over north Texas.

Great areas would be in the Austin, Fredericksburg, Llano, Marble Falls, Burnett area of the hill country. In particular the areas within 40 mailes of Fredericksburg are great. I'd consider, Luckenbach (of Waylon Jennings/Willie Nelson song fame), Enchanted Rock SP, Wildseed Farms, and Pedernales Falls SP, and Willow City Loop as all great places for bluebonnets

Also for the history buff go see the War in the Pacific museum in Fredericksburg. It's the hometown of Chester Nimitz who was CINCPAC during WWII. One of the neatest little museums you will see.

[Robert Fisher]

Bill, IMO the absolute best source for Texas wildflower information is:

http://community.wildflowerhaven.com/forums/

Good luck!

[Nathan Smith]

They're cropping up, but as Michael said, we're probably a couple of weeks away from the big crop you'd want for photos.

Robert, thanks for the wildflowerhaven link!

Nathan

[JeffKohn]

What I saw driving to/from Austin/Houston last weekend was that blooms were just starting to come up in some places, but were still very immature. I expect the Benham area to really take off in the next week or so, with the Hill Country following a week or so after that, and points north to follow after that. I'm going to check the Brenham area (Washington and Austin counties) this weekend, will report back what I find if I remember.

In addition to locations already mentioned in the Hill Country, Inks Lake State Park has lots of wildflowers in good years. And it should be a very good year with all the rain we had last fall/winter.

If I were making advanced plans to travel the Hill Country for wildflowers, the second weekend in April will probably be the best bet IMHO. Definitely check in over at Wildflower Haven regularly.

[JeffKohn]

BTW for someone not familiar with the area, the guidebook put out by the guy who runs Wildflower Have is worth a buy: http://community.wildflowerhaven.com/store/

[Ben Calwell]

We just got back from visting my in-laws in Wimberley, Texas (Hill Country), and there were patches of them here and there. My mother-in-law says another couple of weeks for the peak season, though. But they are sproutng now.

[rdenney]

Note that bluebonnets are planted on purpose along most highway rights of way in Texas, so there are good places just about everywhere. The hill country along and west of the Balcones Escarpment (which runs along I-35 from San Antonio to north of Austin) just provides the most pleasing backdrop.

Rick "for whom the Texas Hill Country seems like home" Denney

[Joe Forks]

Bill, Are you up by the Lake now? I did a little scouting south of San Antonio yesterday and found a few very rich areas. The prognosticators are saying this year will be one of the best in terms of numbers thanks to all the winter rain - and I do not doubt.
How's the dark room coming?

Best
Joe

[Valerie]

http://www.texasphotoforum.com/forum/san-antonio/119278-bluebonnets-where-bluebonnets.html

[Daniel Stone]

here in LA(well, I'm just east of LA about 20mi), we had(they're starting to shrivel with this warm spell we're having now) they were blooming nicely two weeks ago.

got a shot here(link to apug thread I started about fill flash)

http://www.apug.org/forums/forum57/74744-fill-flash-landscapes-dark-foreground.html

-Dan

[Darren H]

Saw my first bluebonnets in north Texas last Friday (4/2). By Tuesday the lone flowers had become nice patches of bluebonnets.

Getting to be that time.

For those aorund DFW- the next two weeks look to be wildflower time. Actually we will get wildflowers into May, but the bluebonnets are now out!