PlantFiles: Texas Bluebonnet
Lupinus texensis

My bluebonnets started from a couple of plants our grandsons gave us when we moved into our new home 4 years ago. I usually let them seed out and they just get prettier each year. However, this year I am anxious to mow them down and get my yard prettied up again. Should I mow them or pull them up and put them in my garden?

The Texas Bluebonnet grows wild on my property facing Hwy 59 between Cleveland & Livingston.
I have taken seeds and redistributed them.

In my Florida garden these are a short lived annual. I get them every year from a nursery friend that I trade seeds with. I will be putting my plants in the ground in the next couple of days and they will do beautifully and be in full bloom by mid April. When May gets hot, they will be gone for another year. But for the weeks I have them, I adore them.

I remember seeing these near fort hood when my father was stationed there when I was in elementary school. They would flood the roadsides between where we lived (Copperas Cove) and Fort Hood every spring with blooms.

I live an hour north of Austin, TX. The bluebonnets are beautiful here. In my pasture, however, the first year, the flower was tiny, tiny, (as Crimson noted). I blame myself because I planted waaaaay late. This year again I thought, "oh no, I have to plant more, this time following the directions", but, I guess, since I planted late, the flowers came late, plus they are bigger. Since they self sow, I can't wait to see how big and how many I'll have next year. Hang in there Crimson blessings are coming your way.

I started mine from seed and have had excellent results. I am a native of Texas, but now reside in central Missouri. I missed the bluebonnets of my childhood. I purchased seeds at my local store. I didn't follow the directions exactly on the packet, but I still received great results! Now I have a piece of my childhood growing in my Missouri home!

I finally got these bluebonnets to grow this year and they are still going. Love how they looked with this firey freesia too!

This beautiful flower comes up in early spring, blooms, seeds, and dies back to the ground. In this area at least, it self sows so consistently that it has the effect of being a perennial.

I'm a beginning gardener and was able to grow a very nice patch from seed on the first try. The seeds I purchased were labelled as "scarified for easy germination". I sowed them on top of my mulch and lightly raked them in the fall and kept it damp until they germinated. I was rewarded with my very own bluebonnet patch this spring.

San Antonio, Tx.
The seeds can take up to 2 or 3 years to germinate and must be planted in September or October. I have done better with transplants. I used to kill the poor things planting them in organically rich soil, fertilizing them and providing too much water. None came up from self-seeding in my flowerbeds, but several were growing in the cracks of the street asphalt. They will grow in gravelly and/or rocky soil and do just fine. I have found that the maroon ones have fewer blooms, do not grow as tall nor wide and do not show up in the landscape as much as the blue ones. Each year I tell myself I am not going to plant the maroons and each year I do hoping that they will perform better.

Update - 4/15/07:
For the first time in my life (60 years), I have seen pink bluebonnets growing in a native environment. I found 2 plants today in a field in Northwest San Antonio. These are very rarely found occurring naturally. According to Texas A&M University, "In the wild it occurs only once in every ten million bluebonnets. And the chance of finding a pink bluebonnet, well it’s one in a hundred million." I hit the jackpot finding 2 plants. :o) There is an 'Abbott Pink' cultivar that has been developed through selective breeding.

I now no longer have to plant transplants of the blue blooming type. The plants come up from seeds each year (even between the cracks in my sidewalk). I still have been disappointed with the cultivars and no longer plant them.

The sides highways in the area are blanketed with bluebonnets her in DFW from about the end of March into May. For years my mom tried to grow them in the yard, both from plants and from seed, with no success. Unfortunately, she was meticulous about maintaining an organic program in the yard. This resulted in a very healthy yard, but not bluebonnets! It seems to me that they do best in poor soil and when they are largely ignored when feeding and fertilizing the other plants in the yard!

Apparently our Central Texas climate is perfect for these to thrive, or is it the alkalinity of our soil? Fields so thick with blue blooms, atop plants that reach up to 18 inches, that they look like a blue quilt spotted with white are a common sight in this area ~ all without any intervention from man. Gorgeous!

In atleast half of the large stands, a plant or three can be found with white or pink blooms (dark pinky-maroon, light pink and all shades in between can be found). The "Maroon" variety was isolated from seeds found growing in San Antonio, I believe along the banks of the river near the Alamo. The legend of the "Red Blubonnet" is that they were stained red from the blood of the defenders that lost their lives there. White has also been isolated for purity and is available commercially. When growing these colors care must be taken to avoid cross pollination with blue ones growing within a mile (I believe) or eventually your stand will revert to the regular blue.

Plants sprout here in fall and go through our minimum 15 degree F winters as small, prostrate plants. It seems they need the long cold period and good rain to do well ~ when we have relatively warm and dry winters, the Blubonnets don't put on as good of a show. In early spring these perk up and take off, blooming their heads off around the beginning of April. By the end of May, when temps start climbing to 90F, they're all petered out ~ they do NOT like heat at all.

To successfully grow these in a colder climb, I would suggest winter sowing in an unheated, bright greenhouse or cold frame.

I'm very disappointed, my seed was from a retail pack and the results were 4" light pink (Was supposed to be maroon) and blue tiny plants with flowers so small it would be amazing if they could produce a single seed.

For southern and arid climes this plant is perfect for early spring color. Does not do well in humid regions. Left undisturbed these plants will reseed and expand.

Bloom from summer through fall in cool climates and from spring until weather turns hot in warm climates. Poor to average soil. Leaf blight, leaf spot, crown rot, powdery mildew, and rust may be troublesome.