Wildflower Center releases spring flower forecast

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center released its annual spring wildflower forecast Tuesday morning.

The wildflower forecast for spring 2025 is rather “mixed” depending on what part of Texas you live and what level of drought you’re dealing with.

Here in Central Texas our drought worsened significantly in the fall of last year and continued an overall worsening trend in much of this winter season.

Parts of the state that are suffering most from drought may not have the best bloom of wildflowers this year, according to Andrea DeLong-Amaya, the horticulture director at the Wildflower Center. Whereas eastern parts of Texas, where rain has been more plentiful, are already showing signs of a solid spring bloom.

She expects that the drought that worsened significantly last fall may limit the number of germinating plants this spring, even though recent rains will help those that did germinate. This potentially impacts the early spring bloomers more so than the later season flowers, which will have more space to flourish later in the season and into summer.

According to DeLong-Amaya, “the late fall drought will likely hinder this year’s early-blooming wildflowers such as Texas bluebonnets (Lupinus texensis) and Texas paintbrush (Castilleja indivisa) in the western part of the state.”

Parts of Central Texas are experiencing similar levels of drought as the western part of the state and may find a similarly underwhelming spring wildflower season.

However, some KXAN viewers have reported sightings of the Texas bluebonnets coming late in January before our most recent frozen and wintry weather.

Watch KXAN during the midday on Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. as we welcome Andrea DeLong-Amaya for a live interview.

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