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Non-Texans visiting our little slice of heaven, known as the Hill Country, marvel at the vivid colors painted along the sides of roads or cascading through sloping fields during the spring. Many would agree that the bluebonnet gets special attention. You don’t hear people raving about the columbine patches in the shade or attend festivals honoring the Texas paintbrush…have you even heard of the Texas paintbrush wildflower? My point exactly.

So why does the bluebonnet get special status among the many wildflowers that jewel our landscape? Why do photographers and families flock to the fields? Why are there festivals and special activities scheduled around the unveiling of the bluebonnet each spring? In search of the answers to these questions I looked into it’s mysterious history. I never found an exact answer to the reason it’s beauty is more captivating than the other species. The Indians created fascinating folktales about them, the early Spanish settlers collected their seeds and sprinkled them around the missions. Eventually legislatures declared the bluebonnet as the state flower (1901).

Perhaps the mystery of it’s beauty lies within the seed itself. It’s seed is a tiny flat brown piece of nothing…that creates an amazing explosion of enchanting goodness in poor soil or sand. The sides of roads is where it flourishes. The seed only germinates in heat yet cold weather is necessary for it’s root structure to develop. These little beauties need lots of Texas sunshine to blossom and that’s why the roadside is such a common place to see them. So a simple seed given special circumstances of sunshine will bloom into something beautiful in otherwise ugly (I consider Texas roadsides a bit ugly at times) places. That is worth a festival I suppose!

Happy Spring from Masters Touch Custom Homes!