AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center released its official spring wildflower forecast for Central Texas Wednesday morning.
Before its release, KXAN Meteorologist Nick Bannin spoke with the wildflower center’s director of horticulture, Andrea DeLong-Amaya, about what we can expect and how the weather may impact the blooming season ahead.
When will wildflowers peak in Central Texas?
Nick Bannin: Everyone wants to know, what is your wildflower forecast for this year?
Andrea DeLong-Amaya: Well, it’s looking really good. We have a lot of bluebonnets in particular, little rosettes, all over the place and they are primed to start blooming with the warmer weather that we’ve had. With March being predicted a little bit cooler, maybe it’ll slow it down. So I’m going to guess that early to mid-April will be our peak.
Generally when we talk about having an above-average wildflower season, we’re talking about quantities of flowers, although certainly the length of time that they’re blooming is part of that too. But everybody wants to see just the oceans of bluebonnets and other wildflowers blooming.
Bannin: What factors led you to this forecast?
DeLong-Amaya: The quantity of plants has a lot to do with adequate rainfall in the fall and winter, while rosettes are still growing. And then, particularly because last summer was so dry, we lost a lot of plants that were acting as competition and crowding out space…that is now open for those spring-blooming wildflowers.
Bannin: We’ve been getting some viewer photos of bluebonnets already. Is this early? And if it is, what does that mean for the season to come?
DeLong-Amaya: Yeah, it is. It is fairly early. We generally don’t see bluebonnets happening in mid-February, we might see a few. That’s not crazy uncommon. If we have a cooler March, then we might be back on a normal type schedule. And it won’t really affect how long they bloom into the late spring, that will have more to do with continued rain.
Bannin: People want this forecast for a nice wildflower season to actually live up to expectations. What type of weather do we want over the next two or three months?
DeLong-Amaya: Ideally we’ll have sunny weather, really. A little bit of rain in the evening when the sun’s not shining, and having good mild temperatures, that would be ideal for all of us.