Natural History Wanderings

Hill Country Wildflower Bloom Peaking

Gary Regner Photography has posted  two new wildflower bloom report for Hill Country

March 31, 2012 – Hill Country Pt 2
Headed out from Austin to the Hill Country taking FM 1431 from IH 35 to Kingland and then took Hwy 71 south from Llano with some side roads included. Found some much better areas this trip, above average to excellent. These areas look like peak bloom is now, with some areas (especially along roads) now past peak.

• FM 1431 from IH 35 to Cedar Park – unremarkable, some wildflowers here and there and an occasional small field. Rating 0-1.
• FM 1431 from Cedar Park to Marble Falls – very few until about 15 miles from Marble Falls, then some roadside flowers and a few pastures. Rating 1-2.
• Stone house north of Marble Falls on Hwy 281 – waist high grass and a few prickly poppies, big disappointment. Rating 0.
• Wirtz Dam Rd – mainly pepper grass, a few bluebonnets.
• FM 1431 from Marble Falls to Kingland – some patches along road, few fields. .
• FM 3404 and CR307 from Kingsland to Hwy 71 – Excellent, many miles of solid bluebonnets along road and many areas where they extend beyond the road into pastures..
• Hwy 71 south of Llano – some excellent roadside blooms and many areas where flowers cover pastures beyond the road. Rating 4-5 in spots.
• FM 2323 south of Llano – miles and miles of solid blue along the road, not many fields until Prairie Mt. where there are several large field of bluebonnets and prickly poppy.

>March 30, 2012 – Hill Country
Headed out from Austin to the Hill Country taking Hwy 29 from Georgetown to Llano and then Hwy 71 north to San Saba county line. My opinion is that peak bloom is NOW, it might even be a bit past peak in some areas.

• Hwy 29 from Georgetown to Seward Junction – unremarkable, few wildflowers.
• Hwy 29 in Liberty Hill area – a few bluebonnet patches in pastures along the road.
• Hwy 29 from Burnet Co. line to Bertram – some bluebonnets along road, nothing great.
• Hwy 29 from Bertram to Burnet – some patches along road, few fields.
• US 281 from Burnet to Park Rd 4 – some pastures with patchy coverage. Rat
• Park Rd 4 – some very nice heavy coverage along some parts of the road and occasional pastures with light to even moderate coverage. Best areas are around the caverns, across from the golf course and near Hwy 29.
• Hwy 29 from Park Rd 4 to FM 1431 – nice spots along road and some beyond, peak is now, grasses are getting high.
• Old Spanish Trail – disappointing, coverage is less dense than usual, lots of grass.
• Hwy 29 from FM 1431 to Llano – nice but not great, too much grass and pepper grass.
• US 71 from Hwy 29 to San Saba Co. line – good bluebonnets especially from Pontotoc to San Saba Co. line, best area I saw. Peak is now, grasses getting high and bluebonnets beginning to go to seed.

His website page Wildflower Report is a good source for Texas wildflower bloom updates.  He also has a photographic Wildflower Index for Texas wildflowers.

Wildflower Haven also has a post Llano is ground zero for the wildflower explosion on March 24

• Roadsides rule right now in all of the areas I saw today. However the roadside are thick and wide with many spots encroaching into fields beyond fence lines. The bluebonnets along roadside are in full bloom. Saw a few seedpods, but only on close inspection.  I would say the roadsides will likely peak overall this coming week. They are not all the same, so some wll peak later than others. And I feel they will still look good by this coming weekend –  especially for morning and evening landscape shots.
• Fields are coming along, but not completely filled in yet. The one field at Babyhead MT was probably the largest solid field.  Other fields have large stretches broken up through the field.  The problem I had in judging fields is that I could see clumps of bluebonnets blooming out in most fields, some even had large patches and stretches. The question is whether there are any other plants yet to shoot up bloom stalks.
• Park RD 4 – only about 50% of what it was in 2010, but still some nice spots. However the roadsides of SH-29 near Llano are way better – just not with rocks.
• RR-2342 just south of intersection with Park RD 4 has a very nice long spot on both sides of the road with bluebonnets beyond the fences. You can get the perfume. See Photo: Bluebonnet Road
• SH-29 from 1431 to Llano is awesome. There are some large fields developing and the roadsides are 90% solid for long stretches. See photo: Wildflower Creek
• SH-16 near Babyhead Mt is really filled out. The field near the intersecton of CR-226 is close to full bloom.
• CR-216 – lots really nice spots along the route with solid roadside coverage of bluebonnets with many spots encroaching beyond fields. See photo: http://www.pbase.com/richo/image/142288314
• CD-215 – not as many spots as CR-216, but still really nice.
• SH-16 just north of RR-965 past Willow City Loop is best I have ever seen for bluebonnet roadsides. White prickly poppies cover many fields on the west side of the road even more than 2010.
• Athaus-Davis RD – not as good as 2010, but in many spots better than Willow City and much less crowded. Several nice spots with bluebonnets flowing down hillside. You might find some cattle, red rock fence and other interesting photo props. This is paved off of RR-2323 then turns to dirt and ends connecting to RR-3347 which connects to RR-962. See photo: Bluebonnet Cattle
• RR-3347 – Wow! roadsides are solid bluebonnets from many long stretches for .5 to mile at a time. Some fields showing a good coverage of bluebonnets. See photo above.  Location on Map: https://wildflowerhaven.crowdmap.com/reports/view/42

Check their hill country forum: http://community.wildflowerhaven.com/forums/5/ShowForum.aspx
and reports site http://www.wildflowerhaven.com/reports.aspx
for more wildflower bloom updatesthroughout Texas

The Texas Wildflower Sightings website continues to post new updates on bluebonnets, paintbrush and other wildflowers across Texas.

Related articles

• Texas Wildflower Update 3/25/12 (naturalhistorywanderings.com)
• South Texas Wildflower Update 3/21/12 (naturalhistorywanderings.com)