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After a month of virtually no rain in February, much of South Texas has now received rainfall well above normal in the first 14 days of March. NOAA models show a good chance that South Texas will again experience some rain beginning Wednesday (3/21/2007) through Friday of next week.
Will this be too much rain for the wildflower seedlings?
Here are my thoughts on the subject. I invite others to give theirs as well.
In areas where the soil drains well, the excess rain should not be a huge problem. Plants in low-lying areas that do not drain well or areas with standing water could be damaged or lost. The good news is that we have had intervening sunny dry days which should help to reducing damping off effects from molds. Hilly or sloping areas with sandy soils will fair the best, such as:
- The North and Middle Sections of Willow City Loop
- DeWitt County - Cuero and Yoakum
- Hilly areas of Industry and Brenham
Will the above normal rainfall help the wildflowers?
The early spring wildflowers are already limited by the number of seedlings that germinated in the fall, so the recent rainfall will not help those areas that are void of seedlings. Areas that drain well with good coverage of seedlings will certainly benefit from the recent rainfall.
The late spring and summer wildflowers that germinated in February and March could certainly benefit from the rain given that the area drains well. We could see a banner year in some areas for the late May and early June wildflowers. However, NOAA's spring (April-June) forecast issued 3/15/2007 calls for below normal rainfall for much of South Texas, so although we are getting above normal rainfall now it might not hold going into April.
RichO
Hunting Texas Wildflowers
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