The Austin area won’t be seeing a lot of bluebonnets this year. Here’s why.

It’s a quintessential Texas experience to get your photo taken in a field of bluebonnets.

“I have lots of pictures,” said Matthew Gaston, who used to work as director of education for the Zilker Botanical Garden. “It’s this bluish hue and it has these gorgeous little leaves you can see even before it starts blooming.”

Gaston now creates educational content online. Growing up in San Antonio, he remembers pulling off the side of the highway and taking photos in a field full of wildflowers.

“ The Central Texan wildflowers are so iconic that people will go on trips from all over the country just to see them,” he said. “And they’re in our backyard.”

Bluebonnets, which usually bloom in March, are Gaston’s favorite. This time last year, he was seeing wildflowers in abundance along Austin highways. This year, he has yet to see any.

The wildflower forecast from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center says the blue flowers may be harder to find in Central Texas this season. Much of the area is in severe or extreme drought, and without enough rain in the fall, the flowers end up blooming later than usual or not at all.

Hannah Armstrong, lead horticulturist with the Wildflower Center, said early bloomers, like bluebonnets and paintbrushes, took a bigger hit. She said they might crop up later, but there will be less of them. Flowers that bloom later might fare better, she said, if the spring brings wetter weather.

“Black-eyed Susans, firewheel, horsemint – things like that – could have a little more room to grow and have more plants,” Armstrong said.

West and Central Texas didn’t get much rain this past fall, Armstrong said, so she recommends hitting the road and driving east.

“Remote highways can sometimes be really nice places to see wildflowers, like country roads,” she said. “It’s a little slower so you can get a better view. It’s a little safer to pull off on the side of the road because you always got to be careful about that.”

Armstrong said Austin folks should try driving through Brenham or College Station for better wildflower viewing this year.

Of course a closer spot is the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Employees and volunteers there tend to the flowers year-round, she said, so they’re all ready to bloom in the spring.

This story was produced as part of the Austin Monitor’s reporting partnership with KUT.

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