Re: [gardeners] Wildflowers
Margaret Lauterbach (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Mon, 20 Apr 1998 06:46:29 -0600
At 01:26 PM 4/19/98 +0000, you wrote:
>One day, early last week, we had the joy of driving down three
>seventy-mile long perennial beds. The State Highway
>Department courteously provided paving for the automobiles and
>named it "Interstate-10."
>
>The beds were full of bluebonnets -- still the old fashioned blue --
>not yet the pink ones, or the Texas A&M development, the maroon
>bluebonnet in honor of the school's color. To contrast, there were
>lavender verbena, pale pink Mexican primroses, deep claret winecups,
>and rare spots of peachy-orange Indian paintbrush. Here and there
>were clumps of the flowers Lady Bird Johnson once called DYC's .
>Called upon to translate, she smiled, "Damned yellow composites."
>
>It is Lady Bird to whom all of us are indebted for these highway
>"perennial beds." Years ago she offered a prize to the Texas
>highway departments who developed the most beautiful flowers
>along their rights-of-way. Doing the work on their own time and
>without State or Federal funds, local garden clubs saved seed, some
>seed was purchased, and (if truth be told) a lot was rustled -- and
>the highway crews scattered or (I'm told this IS the truth) fired the
>seed into the ground from sundry weapons!
>
>There are places -- not on the Interstates -- where the wildflowers
>this time of year are so dense that traffic moves at a snail's pace,
>and where deputy sheriffs must be posted to keep people off private
>land. (Texans do not take kindly to those who go onto their land
>without formal invitation.)
>
>Not being a born-and-bred Texan, all my efforts at planting
>bluebonnets were fruitless, but as my NG companion IS a third
>generation Texan; we encouraged him to plant the seed, he did, and we
>now have two great patches in full flower. Each year, mowing is not
>permitted until the seed pods have turned brown, split, and "thrown"
>their seed. Give us three or four more years and we will have most of
>the "cultivated" half of our five acres covered in bluebonnets. The
>other wildflowers we have are mostly planted by birds --
>we still haven't any Indian paintbrush, but there are winecups, mealy
>blue sage, rain lilies, Mexican primroses, and all manner of
>unidentified tiny things that bloom. And in a month or so, there will
>be standing cypress and Maximillian sunflowers. And more DYC's.
>
>So don't let anybody tell you that flowers won't grow out of rocks,
>or that Texas is all sagebrush and cactii. As a matter of fact,I
>can't grow a sage to save my life, and our only cactii are in the
>house -- except prickly pear, and we keep a bit of that around to
>provide napolitos and for the blooms -- which can be spectacular.
>
>About those sage. Maybe what I need to do is have my native-born
>Texan plant a few! Pat
>
Sounds lovely, Pat. Thank you. Margaret