I don’t know about you but I’ve had the winter blues this year.

   One day we have bright sunshine, and then the next we have snow or rain or rain and snow. We’ve had fog, cloudy days, spitting moisture and one of the weirdest winters I’ve ever seen.

   It’s also been reported that this has been one of the wettest winters in the last 25 years.

   John Nielsen-Gammon, a professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University who also serves as Texas’ state climatologist, has pronounced the last drought officially over. The 5-year-old drought that started in January 2005 is said to have been more serve in Texas than the 7-year drought of the 1950s.

   However, this weird, wet weather is expected to turn the state into a rainbow of colors this spring.

   By the end of March, Texas should be awash in the reds, yellows, whites, and blues of wildflowers, with the season peaking in mid-April, says Damon Waitt, senior botanist at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at The University of Texas at Austin.

   That’s right, for those of us who love spring wildflowers, including Texas bluebonnets, this is expected to be a primo year.

   With rains throughout the fall and winter bringing an end to drought conditions that have persisted in the state since late 2007, Waitt expects exceptional early and late spring wildflowers in many parts of the state.

   In fact, bluebonnets in the Brenham area have already started to poke their heads out.

Wildflower Center conservationists have reported Texas bluebonnets prepping to bloom in granite along roadways between Marble Falls and Llano, Engelmann's daisy along Interstate 10 heading toward El Paso and Big Bend bluebonnet in and around its namesake parks.

Central Texas is among the regions that already has a scattering of wildflowers in bloom. They include lavender-petaled widow's tear and clusters of windflowers with white, blue or sometimes pink flowers.

Before we know it, our cameras will be primed and ready for that family portrait surrounded by bluebonnets. We will be driving along the roadways and admiring the red, white, blue and yellow blankets of beauty.

I’m not much of a flower person but I love Texas wildflowers, especially bluebonnets.

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."

It’s refreshing to know that all this yucky, wet, winter weather will be able to give us some beauty to enjoy when Mother Nature decides it’s time for them to bloom.

According to the Texas Department of Transportation, there are more than 5,000 species of wildflowers in Texas, more than 20 percent of wildflowers are in the Sunflower family and all species of bluebonnet are considered the State Flower.

There are also white bonnets and pink bonnets. These will not necessarily bloom the next year true to color if they are mixed among bluebonnets. This is due to their being pollinated by bees and if the bee goes from a bluebonnet to a white bonnet and pollinates the white bonnet, then it could come back as a bluebonnet.

As a reminder, TxDOT plants wildflowers for everyone’s enjoyment. Picture-taking that leads to potential damage of wildflowers is discouraged. If too many wildflowers are trampled or damaged, they die and do not re-seed.

Naturally, TxDOT also discourages picking wildflowers for the same reason.

So, as we wait for spring to begin, check out http://www.tex-fest.com/wildflower/ for wildflower trail information, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at www.wildflower.org or Fredericksburg’s Wildseed Farms at www.wildseedfarms.com.

Also, TxDOT’s wildflower hotline, providing statewide information on select wildflower locations, operates 24 hours a day at (800) 452-9292. The hotline will operate until late spring.

MELISSA PERNER is the editor and publisher of The Ozona Stockman.
She is looking forward to seeing bluebonnets!