Mama and bluebonnets

First off, Mama sent a comment by email about the Wisconsin-Texas connection spoken of in an earlier post (click here), so be sure to go back and read her comment.

I don't think I have ever been to Albany, Wisconsin, but you go through Beloit all the time on the way to Chicago. (You'll have to read Mama's story for that to make sense to you.)

Second, I many have mentioned before how frugal Tom is. (I guess that's how he accumulated a million dollars.) Now that some of the wildflowers and others he planted around the house are going to seed, he is outside harvesting the seeds and putting them into plastic bags for next year. No need to pay a hard-earned 79 cents at Wal-Mart when you've been growing your own, right?

That plus the appearance of some blue flowers in the beds reminds me that we got a packet of bluebonnet seeds this past spring. I think they wound up in a patch that had to be redug and replanted, but from what I read, they are so hard to get going, it may not make no never-mind anyway. I am not sure we have any place on the property that would give them the eight to ten hours of direct sunlight they need, either, except maybe the deck. So I went online to see if they are good for containers. (They are, if...)

During the process I learned that Texas has five state flowers: five, count them, five. Typical! One isn't big enough.

But it turns out all five are bluebonnets. To save you the trouble of looking it up yourself, here is the info:

The five state flowers of Texas are:

1. Lupinus subcarnosus, the original champion and still co-holder of the title, grows naturally in deep sandy loams from Leon County southwest to LaSalle County and down to the northern part of Hidalgo County in the Valley. It is often referred to as the sandy land bluebonnet. The plant's leaflets are blunt, sometimes notched with silky undersides. This species, which reaches peak bloom in late March, is not easy to maintain in clay soils.
2. Lupinus texensis, the favorite of tourists and artists, provides the blue spring carpet of Central Texas. It is widely known as THE Texas bluebonnet. It has pointed leaflets, the flowering stalk is tipped with white (like a bunny's tail) and hits its peak bloom in late March and early April. It is the easiest of all the species to grow.
3. Lupinus Havardii, also known as the Big Bend or Chisos Bluebonnet, is the most majestic of the Texas bluebonnet tribe with flowering spikes up to three feet. It is found on the flats of the Big Bend country in early spring, usually has seven leaflets and is difficult to cultivate outside its natural habitat.
4. Lupinus concinnus is an inconspicuous little lupine, from 2 to 7 inches, with flowers which combine elements of white, rosy purple and lavender. Commonly known as the annual lupine, it is found sparingly in the Trans-Pecos region, blooming in early spring.
5. Lupinus plattensis sneaks down from the north into the Texas Panhandle's sandy dunes. It is the only perennial species in the state and grows to about two feet tall. It normally blooms in mid to late spring and is also known as the dune bluebonnet, the plains bluebonnet and the Nebraska Lupine.

If you don't believe me, that is courtesy of the good folks at the Texas Cooperative Extension, and I know they wouldn't lie.

Although, being Texans, they may be telling more truth than there is.

If you are just dying to read the whole thing, click here. (If you go there, you will notice this is connected to the Texas A&M University horticulture site.