Bluebonnets

Now is the time for Texas’ best known and most beloved wildflower to dazzle residents and visitors and flower lovers from all over the world. It’s the Texas state flower, the Texas Bluebonnet. For some reason, it seems a little early for me to see these blooms coming out so soon. Guess we have just had the right combination of rain and cold and sun to make it happen. I think the first one I saw in bloom was at the post office. Now they are in bloom everywhere.

Bluebonnets are the state flower of Texas and have been since they were so chosen in 1901 after having been nominated by the Colonial Dames of Texas. That nomination met with opposition in the House of Representatives from a business leader who suggested that the open cotton boll as the “white flower of commerce” be adopted as did Jack Garner, a future vice president of the United States, who supported the adoption of the cactus pear blossom. (To this day, Garner’s nickname is Cactus Jack.)

The question of the name of the state flower still had to be settled, however, as there were at least six species of bluebonnets in the state and the one nominated and voted upon was not the most beautiful of the six. In 1971, the Texas congress passed a new resolution that added the Texas bluebonnet “and any other variety of Bluebonnet not heretofore recorded.”

Not only is the bluebonnet’s beauty, ease of growth, and abundance in its favor, but also its magnificent fragrance. J. Frank Dobie wrote that “No other flower—for me at least—brings such upsurging of the spirit and at the same time such restfulness .”

As a side note, I would like to add that Bonnie Dee, local landscaper, has volunteered several years of her labor to keeping the post office grounds manicured and in full spring bloom. Bonnie is ill right now and is unable to work. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

Written by Martha Knies