Planting Wildflowers

I would love to go see this field of wildflowers!

These are pictures of wildflowers that we have discovered here in Texas. The state of Texas lets wildflowers grow. They don’t mow along several highways and roadways, so you get to see wildflowers in the spring as you drive along, and I personally find it quite refreshing.

I just did a little research and found out that it is not really illegal to pick Texas Blue Bonnets, but they do stress that trespassing is illegal, so you better make sure you are not on private property if you stop to pick some and take your annual kids-in-the-bluebonnets photo. You are also not supposed to dig them up for transplanting. And you are supposed to be careful not to block traffic or do anything dangerous in your endeavor to get next to the coveted state flowers.

Blanket Flower

Years ago, I looked at pictures of flowers that grow in Texas and saw Blanket Flowers and thought they were so pretty that I decided that I wanted to grow them some day. Then one day a couple months ago, Shawn came back from a walk and brought me some flowers that he picked. They happened to be Blanket Flowers, growing wild!

These flowers are growing wild in our backyard.

These are Evening Primroses.

Yesterday we did a little unit study, based on two books by Tomie DaPaola, The Legend of the Bluebonnet and The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush. We just happened to have a packet of wildflower seeds, so I gathered the kids together and read the books to them, then we went outside and planted our wildflower seeds.

The kids planted seeds.

They watered the seeds.

We got the seeds in the mail from a local hospital and saved them for now.

These are the books by Tomie DaPaola. I read them to the kids as part of our unit study. These legends are part of the history of Texas. So we were able to study some Botany and History through the same lesson.