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Re: Washington/Austin Counties - 3/26 update Started by Bill Purcell at 03-26-2007 8:50 AM. Topic has 5 replies. WildflowerHaven... » Texas Wildflowe... » East Texas » Re: Washington/Austin Counties - 3/26 update Hunting Texas Wildflowers - New Book!

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03-26-2007, 8:50 AM Bill Purcell Joined on 06-29-2005 Posts 45 Washington/Austin Counties - 3/26 update I hardly know where to start ... suffice to say that there are some spectacular sights and aromas emerging out there, and the first ten days of April are going to be amazing.  Fields that were developing early are now in full bloom.  Many locations that I was ready to write off have suddenly burst forth with young bluebonnet and phlox blooms, often with stunning coverage and density.  You can drive just about any FM road or back road around Bernham, Independence, Industry, Bleiblerville and Nelsonville and see fields of color, and more are on the way.  Here's a quick rundown of what I found Saturday: Fields of phlox - Austin County: Industry, intersection of Industry and Main; Post Oak Point Rd., west of FM 109; Industry Rd. just north of town - field just emerging, additional patches on the roadside; New Bremen Rd. Fields of phlox - Washington County: Meyersville Rd. (runs between FM 1155 and US 105); Grote Rd. south of FM 2502 (near Latium).  Fields of bluebonnets - Austin County: Many, many locations near towns listed above. Post Oak Point, Cemetery, Wiecker, intersection of Zettel and Tiemann, Shunka and New Bremen (many fields just emerging). As always, you never know what you'll find until you explore.  I also ran across a few locations with beautiful mixes of flowers on the roadsides.  A couple examples include Mertins Creek Rd. (near Independence), which is lined with Texas stork's bill along with scattered bluebonnets, paintbrush, etc.  In Austin County, Old Hwy. 36 between Old Nelsonville Rd. and Arning Rd. is lined with Drummond phlox, large patches of baby blue eyes, and other mixed flowers. I've added the latest set of images to my gallery here:  http://imageevent.com/mpurcell Thanks to those who have e-mailed. I'm glad the information is helpful, and appreciate your comments. - Bill.    Report

03-26-2007, 11:24 AM RichO Joined on 02-15-2005 San Antonio, TX Posts 637 Re: Washington/Austin Counties - 3/26 update Thank you Bill for another great report. I personally appreciate your contributions and your photos are always excellent. This is turning out to be a very exciting season. With the rain we are getting now, I think we will see a banner year in some spots for May wildflowers.   RichO Hunting Texas Wildflowers    Report

03-26-2007, 11:52 AM xseption Joined on 03-02-2006 Richardson, TX (DFW) Posts 202 Re: Washington/Austin Counties - 3/26 update Thanks Bill! I hope to be out there in early April and I look forward to seeing the wildflowers. two cents and then some ...    Report

03-26-2007, 2:21 PM kenw Joined on 02-16-2007 Posts 2 Re: Washington/Austin Counties - 3/26 update A personal note of thanx Bill, we printed and took your previous reports with us Saturday (24th) along with some MS Streets&Trips on the laptop, and had huge success! We never did figure out the "Old Abandoned Housr" on Mt Vernon Rd, but on the next road over (Zilbiski Rd) was one of the largest and thickest bluebonnet fields I have ever seen.    Report

03-26-2007, 9:05 PM Bill Purcell Joined on 06-29-2005 Posts 45 Re: Washington/Austin Counties - 3/26 update Ken, Thanks for the reply.  I'm glad you had success, and thanks for the tip on Zibilski Rd. - I've missed that one so far this year!   I'm anxious to see it on my next trip out there.  I've seen a couple good fields there in past years, and some really nice displays of prairie verbena on the roadsides of Zibilski and Quail Run ... As far as the "abandoned" house goes on Mt. Vernon Rd. ... if you travel the road begining from FM 2679 and follow it past the second jog to the southeast, you go about half a mile - just before the road descends down a hill, it's on the left (northeast) side of the road.  I drove past there Saturday morning just after shooting the field at daybreak, and was surprised to see that blooms were just emerging in the field in front of the house.  I'd seen copious seedlings there a few weeks back, and figured it would be in full bloom by now, but it will need another 1-2 weeks to peak in that particular location. Why?  My only guess is that it sits on top of one of the higher hills in the area, and thus has experienced some "micro-climate-type" nocturnal cooling, which in turn has kept the soil temperature slightly below that of the surrounding area.  This is only an educated guess, obviously;  temperatures can vary greatly in the lowest few meters of atmosphere, particularly in areas of elevation change - it would certainly be a fun an interesting field research project to try and ascertain how such things affect wildflower blooms. Take care, Bill.    Report

03-29-2007, 6:18 PM FlowerPower Joined on 03-08-2005 The Woodlands, Texas Posts 137 Re: Washington/Austin Counties - 3/26 update Just a 3/29 add on to Bill's previous report: It took me three hours to go from Charppell Hill to Independence the wildflower photo shooting was that good today. It was easily twice as good as my trip on 3/17 and I think it will be twice as good again in another week. I'll get the photos up this weekend at: http://www.grigsbys.smugmug.com/gallery/2595319  All around the Brenham area seems to be really good this year and I was dodging showers all day long so that is why I think the best is yet to come. Bill has covered the spots so well that I won't repeat them again here. I didn't get a lot of time in the Industry area but it really seemed to pale in comparison to the Brenham area. Flowers will brighten your day whether mild or wild, Murry!    Report

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