The Kiddos

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Sunday, March 6, 2011

Early Bloomers.......For ALL to see!!

In 2007, while on a quick trip to Lowes, I got a packet of Bluebonnet seeds. I decided that I would try to grow them in the landscaping in the backyard. I believe that I planted at the beginning of April. After being told that you can't grow bluebonnets in a flowerbed, I was so excited when a flower bloomed in June, way past season!



I think there were only a handful of blooms that year. I couldn't wait to see what I was going to get in 2008, if anything.


To my surprise, not only did they come back, they came back bigger and prettier with lots of blooms!! I held on to the greenery long after the flowers seeded and replanted themselves. Brandon finally pulled them up because they were looking pretty bad. I was afraid that they would not come back in 2009 but at the time I had an infant to care for and that was all I was concerned about.
So Spring of 2009 rolled around and out popped a crop of Bluebonnets! There were not as many as 2008 but they were so pretty!





Spring of 2010 for sure had the best crop! They spanned the whole front of the bed and made a ton of blooms.


At the end of the season I mentioned to Brandon that I wanted to try and harvest the seeds and plant them around the trees in the front yard. That way if they grew, everyone in and out of the neighborhood could enjoy them as much as we do. Since we live at the edge of the neighborhood there is a lot of traffic beside our house. We, mostly Brandon, must have cracked open hundreds of seed pods, each containing 5-7 seeds. I am sure there were close to a thousand seeds when it was all said and done. Brandon trenched around a tree in the front yard and scattered the seeds. He insisted that if I wanted the rest planted, I needed to do it. So I did it just like he told me to. I was very surprised that foliage started to grow in the winter. In January it really started to grow like crazy. I guess the mild temps helped out. Near the middle of January I couldn't believe there were flower buds forming. By the end of January there were several blooms!

Then there was a crazy snap of freezing temps. All the flowers died and the green looked pretty sad. I didn't even think to try and cover them. I had no idea if they would survive but I was keeping my fingers crossed. Needless to say now that the weather is back to mild, I have a whole new crop of blooms popping up! I snapped this picture last week. Unfortunately the seeds that Brandon planted did not produce :(. I guess I will try to harvest seeds from the batch to plant again in the area where Brandon planted last year.


1 comment:

  1. I want some bluebonnets, so save me some seeds! Better yet, come plant them for me since you definitely have the magic touch. These are beautiful!

    ReplyDelete