Spring has arrived in Spring Creek, leading me to thank God
every day that I am a naturalized Texan. Texas is the only place I have ever
been that has blankets of wildflowers covering vast expanses of the
countryside—and I’ve been all over the continental United States.
In my hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, this time of the year brings azalea blooms in almost every front yard, park, and in the famous gardens around the area. In the town of my collegiate alma mater, Knoxville, Tennessee, spring means blooming dogwood trees and redbud trees in every yard and park. In late spring and early summer in Tennessee, there are pockets of old climbing roses, tiger lilies, Queen Anne’s lace, and sweet peas growing and blooming in the wild along the roadsides. A walk through the old neighborhoods near the University of Tennessee campus reward the walker with the sight of tiny wild violets, and bright yellow forsythia.
Still, it is different when flowers are carefully planted and cultivated, or grow wild in small patches and pockets. Texas is known for “bigger and better,” and that is definitely the case with the wildflowers. While I love seeing the roadsides covered in bluebonnets, primroses, and Indian paintbrush, it thrills me to walk out on our ranch and see the flowers in the pasture and on the rocky hillsides where no human has planted them. I’ll take a field of truly wild flowers over any cultivated garden.
One time I personally encountered a huge field covered in wildflowers outside of Texas. I was visiting my aunt, who lived in Gallup, New Mexico at the time, and we had gone for a walk in her neighborhood. We came to the end of the street where it dead-ended into ranchland and there was a field of coral-colored Indian paintbrushes, but they were about three to four feet tall. What was even more remarkable than these giant flowers were the thousands of hummingbirds zipping about that field.
I said “personally” in the previous paragraph because I am
sure there are other places besides Texas with wildflowers covering the
countryside—I have seen photos and have heard stories, but have not witness
many myself. I have a friend from Montana who has told me about the wild
lupines that bloom in the mountains. You may know that our beloved bluebonnets
are in the lupine family, but the lupines of Rocky Mountains are much taller
and bigger than our bluebonnets. Yesterday my husband and I were talking about
volcanoes, which led to us looking up a map of all the volcanoes in the United States (the closest potentially active volcano to us is in central New Mexico,
FYI), and then led to a discussion of the long-term effects of the Mount Saint
Helens eruption back in 1980. Yes, this is seriously the sort of thing we sit
around and discuss. I found an article with a fairly detailed account of the
biological/ecological progression since the eruption. That was interesting
enough, but the photo of the prairie lupines covering the pumice field at the
base of the mountain was stunning. (click here to see the article)
Get out and enjoy your blessed Texas spring. Make sure to
say a prayer of thanks for the natural beauty that surrounds you and add a
request for some quenching rains.
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| My beautiful sidekick enjoying some of the truly wild wildflowers on the ranch spring of 2012. |
