At Long Last Bluebonnets
I generally stay out here in Spring Creek as much as possible, to the point that the only time I leave the ranch is to cross the county road to check my mailbox. But the past few days have involved lots of driving, to south of San Antonio and back and to Lakeway and back. I am happy to report that the wildflowers are making a very nice showing this spring, despite the fact that we are still very short on rainfall.
I have been putting out bluebonnet seeds by our gate over the years so, if we are going to have any flowers at all, we will have them there. Last spring we had maybe one or two gate bluebonnets and that was it for the ranch. This year we have a bunch, but certainly not as lush as some more favorable springs. I have checked a few likely spots elsewhere on the ranch and have found that we have some nice patches of those that God plants.
A few weeks back I asked my husband to mow along the road between the house and the gate, especially a low spot between the road and the woods. There have always been flowers in that spot and the dried grass stems were too tall to see anything that might have bloomed. A week after he mowed, I was walking back from the gate when I saw a carpet of dark purple flowers up against the woods. Upon closer inspection, I realized it was a species I had never seen before. After consulting every plant book I have and every website and plant identification app on my phone, I had still not come up with a solid answer. Finally I posted it on iNaturalist with a very tentative identification, Sand Phacelia, and waited for the experts to correct me. Instead, the Texas Flora group added it to their database. San Phacelia it is, and now I’m finding them all over the ranch. How does a flower come out of nowhere like that?
Next up will be cactus blooming season, and it is looking like that will be a bit early, too, this year. Last week I found one I had never seen before and would never have noticed it but for the ring of red fruits at ground level. Under those fruits was a nearly subterranean cactus with much smaller thorns than a Horse Crippler. This one, it turns out, is a Heyder’s Pincushion cactus. According to my research it should have pale yellow flowers when it blooms. I have found more colonies of Lace Hedgehog cactus, too, and all are loaded with flower buds.
Finally, I keep watching and waiting for blooms on the Eve’s Necklace trees we found last summer. They are supposed to have very noticeable strings of pink blooms but I have never seen them despite the fact that they have been right here beside the house all along. I am thinking I just did not know to look for them.
Happy Spring to all of you, and I hope you get a chance to get out and enjoy the show nature is putting on for us. But please continue to pray for rain! <SpringCreek-ArtsGuild@gmail.com>