Once I discovered the El Niño forecast was likely to bring lots of moisture to drought ridden areas of Texas during the Winter of 2009 - 2010, I began to make plans to attempt to capture the beauty of Texas landscapes swathed in some of the 5,000 varieties of wildflowers to be found in the Lone Star State.

The "When?" question seems to be the most difficult to answer. Most sites simply use Spring to indicate when and that could potentially cover three months of time. Of course it's impossible to pin down Mother Nature to a specific time when she is likely to start her Spring Nature Fashion Show. I know I will need to be flexible and ready to go when the show begins, especially since I want to concentrate on Central and East Texas and I live in Amarillo which is a good distance away from those regions.

Then as fate would have it, I found myself accepting an invitation (which I will not belabor as of yet) which will place me in Stephenville during the first and last weeks of March. I suspect this time period will be a bit early for Spring wildflowers in that area but it does get me about halfway to the Gulf of Mexico where Spring starts earlier. I did find The Texas Hill Country Wildflower Trail web site which features an area roughly Southwest of Stephenville but Burnet, "The Bluebonnet Capitol of Texas" won't be celebrating their 27th Annual Bluebonnet Festival until April 9, 2010.

So now I am thinking I should begin my tour at the beginning of March and concentrate on Texas History subjects while making my way south to the historic battlegrounds where Texians fought to create the Republic of Texas. Then I can work my way back north in search of more Historic Texas and yes, Texas Wildflowers.

It would be nice to use the power and immediacy of Social Media to gather useful information from communities and individuals along the way. If you would like to become a part of my tour or provide useful information about Texas History locations to visit and the status of wildflower displays in your area then feel free to contact me though this web site, my Twitter account or my account on Facebook. This could turn out to be a lot of fun, informative and if we are lucky with the help of Mother Nature, will get to experience images of Beautiful Texas!

Texas Wildflower Resources

The Texas Department of Transportation has a long history of encouraging native wildflowers along the public right of way. A formal roadside wildflower program began in 1932 and continues to the present day with the department annually sowing 30,000 pounds of Texas native wildflower seed as part of the Wildflower Program. TxDOT also maintains a Wildflower and Fall Foliage Report during season.

Texas Highways magazine is known for publishing beautiful Texas landscapes, many featuring wildflowers. However, the web site doesn't have a special section for them. A site search for wildflowers turned up a number of articles that may give a few clues for being in the right place at the right time so I can capture some of the natural beauties.

Turning to Google in my search for Texas Wildflowers, I find Wild About Texas Wildflowers hosted by Lone Star Internet in Austin. A wildflower database with photos can help you to identify blooms you are not familiar with and there is a section to record and display wildflower sightings. This could wind up being a very useful resource on my wildflower tour.

WildflowerHaven looks to be another site dedicated to Texas Wildflowers. The site loaded very slow for me but shows great promise as a resource containing maps, photos and an online wildflower enthusiast community with interactive forums. I found and ordered "Hunting Texas Wildflowers" containing 17 maps and detailed descriptions of over 75 wildflower routes and locations covering the Hill Country, East Central Texas, North Central Texas, and Southeast Texas.

DeWitt County claims to be the Wildflower Capital of Texas where the DeWitt County Wildflower Association organizes tours and events during the Spring blooming season for Texas Wildflowers in the county.

Map the Texas Wildflowers is another online resource for reporting and mapping wildflower bloom sightings primarily around the Houston area.

Looking for a Texas Wildflower identification resource you can use with your iPhone? Yep, there's an app for that. iPhone app for Texas wildflowers released.

Bluebonnets begin blooming in the southern part of the range, in and around San Antonio, in March, and the bloom works its way north through May. The season's peak varies with location and seasonal conditions.

I really missed a large part of the Spring blooms in the Texas Big Bend Region at the beginning of May last year. Perhaps the Texas Wildflower Reports from DesertUSA will be more helpful for my next go round in that region. 

I will add more information about planning for this tour to this article as I receive and find more information.

Have a useful web site to pass along? Send me your links and I will add them here so others can join in on the Texas Wildflower Tour in 2010.