On The Texas Bluebonnet Trail

Bluebonnets are now in full bloom in Texas. Yesterday Dean and I went on a road trip to Round Top and Warrenton. We saw some beautiful displays of bluebonnets along the highways.

It is really hard to imagine the beauty of the Bluebonnets and the orange Indian Paintbrushes until you really see them with your own eyes. A picture does not do them justice. We found this field on the outskirts of Round Top.

Bluebonnets have been loved since man first trod the vast prairies of Texas. Indians wove fascinating folk tales around them. The early-day Spanish priests gathered the seeds and grew them around their missions. This practice gave rise to the myth that the padres had brought the plant from Spain, but this cannot be true since the two predominant species of bluebonnets are found growing naturally only in Texas and at no other location in the world.

As historian Jack Maguire so aptly wrote, "It's not only the state flower but also a kind of floral trademark almost as well known to outsiders as cowboy boots and the Stetson hat." He goes on to affirm that "The bluebonnet is to Texas what the shamrock is to Ireland, the cherry blossom to Japan, the lily to France, the rose to England and the tulip to Holland."

 
The ballad of our singing governor, the late W. Lee O'Daniel, tells us you may be on the plains or the mountains or down where the sea breezes blow, but bluebonnets are one of the prime factors that make the state the most beautiful land that we know.

BEAUTIFUL TEXAS W. Lee O'Daniel

You've all read the beautiful stories
Of the countries far over the sea,
From whence came our ancestors
To establish this land of the free.
There are some folks who still like to travel,
To see what they have over there,
But when they go look,
It's not like the book,
And they find there is none to compare—
CHORUS:
To beautiful, beautiful Texas,
Where the beautiful bluebonnets grow.
We're proud of our forefathers
Who fought at the Alamo.
You can live on the plains or the mountains,
Or down where the sea breezes blow,
And you're still in beautiful Texas,
The most beautiful place that I know.

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