Bluebonnets in Winter –
Texas Bluebonnets are a special flower. Most flowers germinate in the spring after the last freeze, but not bluebonnets. They germinate in the fall, when the rain comes in September or October. Germination is when the seed starts growing and puts out its first little roots and green sprouts above ground. My Papa taught me that word when I had a growth spurt; he told me I was germinating too early.
All through the winter, the bluebonnet develops its large root system deep underground. The green plant above ground doesn’t grow much, and amazingly, it is frost proof. It can snow and ice all over, but the five-fingered leaf pattern doesn’t freeze and die. There are very few plants that have this kind of anti-freeze. Do you see the frost all over these bluebonnets?
This is what allows the bluebonnet to be the first plant to grow and show color in the spring, usually late March and then through all of April. When most other flowers are germinating, the bluebonnet is showing off petal after petal of bright blue.
