Although spring hasn’t officially arrived, Texas wildflowers are beginning to bloom, perfuming the air with spring’s signature scents and peppering winter’s drab landscape with color.
Native plant experts at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center just released this year’s Texas wildflower forecast and outlook, predicting a varied season for blooms this spring due to the uneven rainfall and ongoing drought in several regions across the state.
“In a state as geographically vast and varied as Texas, it’s rare that we can make a forecast that suits the whole state,” says Andrea DeLong-Amaya, the Center’s horticulture educator. “We have wild fluctuations in weather and lots of microclimate scenarios, and this year’s bloom season will be just as varied as that.”
There will be a mixed showing of wildflowers across the state because it’s dependent on how much fall and winter rainfall areas received. “For the spring booming wildflowers, we need good rain in the fall and winter and continued rain in the spring,” adds Andrea DeLong-Amaya.
The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center is the State Botanic Garden & Arboretum of Texas and welcomes more than 276,000 guests annually to its 284 acres of gardens, trails and exhibitions. Photo by Jon Merz
So, what does that mean for those beloved bluebonnets in our neck of the woods? In Austin and Central Texas, where it’s been fairly dry, DeLong-Amaya predicts this year will not be the best bluebonnet season –– we will see them, but they will be smaller and more stunted than we’ve seen in recent years.
“It will be a more diminished display for bluebonnets this year,” says the Center’s horticulture educator, adding that folks may just have to look a little harder for bluebonnets on the side of the road this year in many areas of Texas, including Central Texas.
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Bluebonnet displays might be bigger and better in other parts of the state that have gotten more rain, she says, such as northern areas of Texas, like Dallas and Ennis.
“We’re hopeful for more spring rain to bring out the later-blooming flowers,” says DeLong-Amaya, adding that even if the early spring plants are not doing much, perennials seem to be less affected by drought. “Bluebonnets are great, but the show gets even better as the spring season progresses.”
But if predicting the weather is tricky, DeLong-Amaya admits predicting the wildflowers is even trickier. Overall, though, she says there’s no need for panic.
“I’ve never seen a year where nothing is blooming. That just doesn’t happen,” says DeLong-Amaya. “We can always expect some spring wildflowers.”
One bloom in particular is having a banner season this year –– Texas mountain laurel, one of the earliest spring blooming plants which fills the air with an intoxicating sweet grape-bubblegum scent.
“We lost almost all of the mountain laurel crop last spring due to the late freeze that occurred just as they were getting close to bloom when their buds were very vulnerable,” says DeLong-Amaya. “But this year they are beautiful –– they had pent up energy.”
Texas Mountain Laurel is one of the first plants to bloom in the spring, beginning to bloom in February and continuing through mid-April. Photo by Mauri Elbel
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As we move further into the spring, there will be potential for seeing other wildflowers, she says, particularly if we get some much-needed rain soon to help help coax out the blooms. Even if early spring bloomers are a little sparser, that could mean later spring and summer flowers have more room to flourish, says DeLong-Amaya, adding that wildflower-watchers should look out for those mid- to late-spring bloomers like firewheel (Gaillardia pulchella), purple horsemint (Monarda citriodora), winecups and annual sunflowers, which all could show up stronger this year if spring brings wetter weather. Already putting on a spectacular show, both visually and with its sweet fragrance, is the Wildflower Center’s Wildflower of the Year for 2026: Carolina jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens), a perennial evergreen vine with bright yellow, trumpet-shaped blooms and glossy evergreen leaves.
But if bluebonnets are what you’re after, there’s one failsafe way to get those annual photos with the Texas state flower –– visit the Wildflower Center, where staff, professional horticulturists and volunteers work tirelessly throughout the year to cultivate native Texas plants and encourage maximum flowers throughout its 284 acres of gardens and trails.
Pose for annual bluebonnet pictures at the Wildflower Center. Contributed by Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center
For more information about this wildflower season, visit the Wildflower Center’s Texas Wildflower Central webpage.
If You Go
FUN WILDFLOWER FACTS
- There are six species of bluebonnets in Texas.
- The Texas bluebonnet became the Texas state flower in 1901, and all Lupinus species were designated as the official state flower 70 years later.
- Bluebonnets typically bloom from early March to early May.
- The Indian paintbrush is actually a pretty parasite that will attach themselves and draw nutrients from other plant species such as the bluebonnet.
- You can eat some wildflowers, like pink evening primrose (often called buttercups).
- It’s not illegal to pick bluebonnets. While there are laws against trespassing and damaging property, bluebonnets don’t have any special protection compared to other flowers or plants.
- Antelope horns, from the milkweed family, are a host plant for the monarch butterfly.
- Texas parsley, which can grow up to 5 feet high, is the host plant for the black swallowtail butterfly.
- Bluebonnets are selfish and prefer disturbed, poor-quality soil. They don’t like competition and they thrive in landscapes that have been heavily grazed by cattle or have been scorched by fire.
- Up close, the flower looks like a little bonnet; after it rains, look for a drop of water in each bowl-like leaf.
- Bluebonnets are part of the legume family.
- Common early-spring bloomers in Texas include bluebonnet, pink evening primrose, Indian paintbrush, winecup and coreopsis while common late-spring bloomers include Indian blanket, black-eyed Susan, lantana, Turk’s cap and horsemint.
