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Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?

A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.

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Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

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Please forgive us, but Mr. Smarty Plants has been overwhelmed by a flood of mail and must take a break for awhile to catch up. We hope to be accepting new questions again soon. Thank you!

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Tuesday - February 10, 2009

From: Van, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Seed and Plant Sources
Title: Contacts for finding wildflowers in Texas
Answered by: Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

Do you have a website or phone number for updates to find blooming wildflowers?

ANSWER:

Here is an extract from a reply we sent out a couple weeks ago. We will check the websites and see if anyone is reporting anything yet, last time it was apparently too early in the year.

"The Wildflower Center website always has information on what's blooming, and will have bluebonnet forecasts in the Spring. Several other groups provide information on sightings and routes for viewing wildflowers. One of these is Lonestar Internet, Inc. You can find more routes and information at the Texas Hill Country Wildflower Trail web site. DeWitt County offers its own wildflower site as does Brenham, Texas in Washington County. On the Brenham page, select "Visitor Information", then "Nature Watch" to find their information on wildflowers. We went in and checked all these sites, and it is apparently too early for anyone to be predicting; everyone is in the same predicament we are, as in "who knows?" Keep checking those sites, and as the situation develops, there will start being more specific information, hopefully, information that the bluebonnets have miraculously pulled a great blooming season out of their hats."

These websites are all still active, and several have links or phone numbers but, again, it's a little early to predict when or if wildflowers will be spectacular, considering the very bad drought we have had this year. 

Postscript: After we had published this answer, we found a Texas Highway Department website, Wildflower Sightings.  We're hoping others who read Mr. Smarty Plants will want to know about this one, too.

 

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