Legend of the Bluebonnet


The Texas fields are covered
With a blanket of deep blue.
But for a little Indian girl,
This would not be true.
Texas land was buried and dry.
Rains just would not come.
Indians danced and prayed for rain,
And bent upon their drums.
The Chief made a proclamation.
He appealed to one and all.
A prized possession must be sacrificed
Before the rains would fall.
The Indian camp was silent,
While each person searched his heart.
But when it came to sacrifice,
With possessions they would not part.
Suddenly a little girl steeped forth,
Holding her blue-clad doll.
She placed it in the roaring fire
and raindrops began to fall.
The rain brought forth the grass,
Among its blades, flowers of blue.
To be a sign for all the time
Of a love so pure and true.

 Ordinarly Texas bluebonnets sprout in Texas in the Fall, grow slightly through the Winter and then grow rapidly and bloom in the
Spring. Unfortunately Chicago winters are too cold for this cycle. However I've found that you can plant them in March and then they
will bloom in the summer or fall. 

I think that if you give them enough protection against a warm wall and cover them and you have a mild Chicago winter they MAY
survive here. 

The seeds don't sprout easily but you can improve the germination rate by using a pin to make a tiny dent in the rounder end of the
seed. Another option I've seen but never tried is to pour boiling water over the seeds. 

I did once get seeds for the Abbot pink variety from the Texas Seed Company. They pretreated the seeds with acid to damage the hard
seed coat that inhibits the seeds from sprouting but when I tried to start these indoors they rotted rather than sprouted. To beat this
problem I put the seeds in a clear plastic box lined with damp paper towels and when they started to sprout I moved them to a small pot.
Probably putting them into Park's Start cylinders would work just as well. This pink version is only slightly pink, more pink in cold
weather but almost white in hot weather. 

S T O P ! !