Human Flower Project
Bluebells? You Coulda Fooled Us
Take a country drive, meet the locals, yes—but start correcting folks on flower nomenclature, and you’re backing up.
Eustoma grandiflorum blooming on July 4
Fayette County, Texas
Photo: Gary McKee
At the big St. John Picnic and polka-rama on July 4th, Gary McKee was good enough to stroll up and introduce himself to us, a couple of gawkers sweating at the edge of the dance floor. A native of rural Fayette County, Texas, Gary apparently went off and got himself an education in anthropology. And he’s returned to document – among many glories of this locale—the great dance halls hereabouts.
Czech and German immigrants settled in this part of Texas. Towns like Praha, Dubina and Schulenburg are a tipoff, as is the abiding dedication to polka and waltz music (so much jauntier than the shuffling 2-step that dominates farther west).
Over the holiday weekend, Gary generously sent us some beautiful photographs of “the bluebells which are in bloom in the area right now.”
Er, uh…well…. We consider “bluebells” to be these heavenly flowers (Mertensia virginica) that bloom in the Midwest in early spring. They could no more survive July 4th in Fayette County than a Richmond belle could have savored the Shiner Hobo Band. Then, of course there are the legendary English bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) and their oft-maligned Spanish cousins (Hyacinthoides hispanica), which M Sinclair Stevens has actually managed to grow in Austin—though not, Lord knows, so they bloom for Independence Day.
Just as we were about to lower the glimmering wand of our expertise on Gary’s head (I mean, really, Gary, these are not even BLUE!), we thought we’d take a look at Geyata Ajilvsgi’s fine Wildflowers of Texas, wanting to learn what, in fact, such pretty purple flowers are that bloom in polka country during July. (Her handbook is indeed handy, divided into white, yellow, red and blue flowers). Page 345, here they were, “Bluebells.” Eustoma grandiflorum—“Bloom period: June – September.”
You could have fooled us, Gary, and did! We owned up, and heard more about these beautiful plants:
Bluebells, blooming after a dry spring near Fayetteville, Texas, July 2008
Photo: Gary McKee
“They only grow in the worst blackland/clayish soil and only bloom the last half of June and the first part of July, and only after a dry spring,” Gary reports. “Last year was a wet spring and no bluebells. There is a fantastic field just off of US 71 on the road to Fayetteville.” He even sent us a picture of it. Occasionally, Gary says, there is “an albino (?) plant, kinda like white bluebonnets.”
We apparently aren’t the only floral fools who ever waltzed through town. Gary says he’s been asked about these flowers before: “I tell the city folks that there used to be millions of them, but Blue Bell Creamery (located up the road in Brenham) has about wiped them out making Blue Bell Ice Cream. Some of them city slickers are pretty gullible….”
That’s putting it kindly, Gary. Thanks, and great to meet you.
Comments
Does the ice cream feature candied petals? Does it taste like bluebells (what do bluebells taste like)?
uh-oh, Georgia. You just set off the gullible-o-meter!
I guess I did. But aren’t bluebells edible?
some people say some flower called a “bluebell” is edible, but for the life of us, we can’t tell which one they mean.
http://katesmudges.typepad.com/katesmudges/2007/06/from-bluebells.html
We wouldn’t advise it.
Hi Julie,
I’d like to see those fields of Texas bluebells – a cultivated relative suitable for flower gardens was once sold as Lisianthus, but the names change so quickly that might not work anymore.
Since Kate/Smudges lives in Saskatchewan where warm weather arrives quite late, my suspicion is that her edible bluebells are related to the Virginia Bluebells that you knew, and that I grew in Illinois.
Here’s a link to a kind in Alaska that tastes like fish!
http://www.elliott.family.name/alaska2000/hf_bluebells.htm
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
So that’s what they are. When we went to McKinney Falls SP last week, we say them starting around Brenham, TX all the way to Austin. Fields of them too! They sure were pretty!