My grandmother, Nanny to us kids, loved bluebonnets. She loved all wildflowers but especially bluebonnets.
She was a native Texan so that fact is probably no surprise. However, her love for these attractive weeds went beyond the standard Texas loyalty.
A typical Texan will happily drive for hours in the spring for the chance to view vast fields of the state flower. Of course she would often do this, but she would also collect seeds throughout the year so that she could plant them along highways in the fall.
As a child, I would sometimes accompany her and operate the shovel while she sowed the seeds in places where she could keep her eye on them during their growth.
Prior to these experiences with her, I had always assumed that the wildflowers were responsible for their own dispersion. Now, whenever I see bluebonnets along the road, I imagine a little old woman urging a reluctant teen boy with a shovel to “keep up the pace!”
Nanny didn’t just plant bluebonnets along the road though, she sowed them anywhere the sun shined. Her front yard, her side yard, her backyard, city parks, vacant lots, alleyways.
She was very successful, too. Her bluebonnet patches often attracted admirers, photographers and plenty of pollinators.
My wife also loves bluebonnets. She grew up in Kerrville and got to enjoy some of the state’s best bluebonnet gazing with her family along the Hill Country’s famously scenic Willow City Loop.
Once we had our own children, my wife and I would photograph our young sons in Nanny’s bluebonnet patches. That’s because, despite my shovel work with my grandmother, I never had any success growing my own.
Back in 2015, I bought some property out in the country that would eventually be my homesite. One of the first things I did with that property was plant bluebonnet seeds with my sons.
But no bluebonnets came up. Year after year I would plant more seeds. No bluebonnets.
Nanny died in December 2023 at the age of 97. She had good health and enjoyed her independence until the very end, and she even tended her garden with care up until the last few years.
She was a blessing to many people, even some who never knew her or knew why there were so many bluebonnets between Sinton and Rockport, north of Corpus Christi.
Last spring—inexplicably—I had some big, beautiful bluebonnet patches in my front flower bed, even though I didn’t sow any seeds in the fall.
If you ask me if I think this is a coincidence, I would say, yes, of course it is.
But it is my favorite coincidence ever.
