Native Plants

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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Thursday - May 12, 2005

From: Beaumont, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Seeds and Seeding, Wildflowers
Title: More on bluebonnets
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

My bluebonnet plants have seed pods (I guess they are, they look like pods of snap peas). Can I collect these or do I just leave them alone and hope they multiply? If I can collect them, what is the process?

ANSWER:

Bluebonnets do a good job of reseeding themselves. The seed pods are mature when they turn yellow or brown and start to dry. You can simply let the mature seeds fall to the ground, or you can mow them at this point to help spread them a bit. You will learn from that collecting, storing and resowing the seeds is a lot more work than letting the plants reseed themselves. If you do however decide to gather the seeds, you can read about the proper process on the Native Plant Library page in another PDF-formatted article called "Guidelines for Seed Collecting".

From the Image Gallery

Texas bluebonnet
Lupinus texensis