Texas Gardening: Planting bluebonnet seeds, 0 by DaleTheGardener

DaleTheGardener wrote:
I lived in Austin for a number of years and noticed that Bluebonnets started to germinate in Sept, in that area. They always seemed to come up with the first 'cold' front - it didn't cool off much, but, seeds live a different life than we do. Those were always the biggest plants when they bloomed.

I used to go walking along a creek, just down the hill from my house. I noticed a bluebonnet had sprouted in a silt deposit along one edge. The soil was very light and the bottom edge of the area was in the flowing water, that area always stayed very damp. I watched it over a few weeks and it grew to a huge size, about 9-10 inches across in 6 weeks. Then we had one of those big late season storms in early Nov and it got washed away.

Lupine seeds are tough. If they don't come up this year they will come up next year.

I have tried Bluebonnets here, they do not like this part of Florida. I have tried all the different lupines that are available and they are always pitiful - too warm and our soil is sandy and acidic.

We do have some nice native Prickly Pears>