Two takes on a certain floral twosome
Bluebonnets tend to form monocolonies. They’re impressive, as you’ve been seeing, yet it’s nice to have a mixture of wildflower colors. Above, near Bastrop on March 19th some phlox (Phlox drummondii) offered a contrasting color to a colony of sandyland bluebonnets (Lupinus subcarnosus). Notice the small mounds made of the sand that gives sandyland bluebonnets the first part of their common name. Below, I’d found the same pairing on March 13th at the McKeller Cemetery in Gonzales. The little white flowers dotting the background are lazy daisies (Aphanostephus sp.).
© 2023 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
A very nice pairing indeed.
Robert Parker
March 23, 2023 at 5:21 PM
You can say that again.
Steve Schwartzman
March 23, 2023 at 5:44 PM
Just beautiful!
SportsMom
March 23, 2023 at 6:00 PM
Floral delights.
Steve Schwartzman
March 23, 2023 at 7:59 PM
So stunningly beautiful!
Eliza Waters
March 23, 2023 at 6:19 PM
We’ve been seeing dozens of wildflower scenes like this over the past two weeks.
Steve Schwartzman
March 23, 2023 at 8:00 PM
How fortunate you live in such a beautiful area!
Eliza Waters
March 24, 2023 at 9:08 AM
Fortunate indeed when spring is in the air.
Steve Schwartzman
March 24, 2023 at 9:23 AM
I really like the second photo; the large white ‘patch’ created by the gravestone is a wonderful complement to the colorful complexity of the wildflower patch.
shoreacres
March 24, 2023 at 5:25 AM
You may recall that some years ago, as a joke, I put my copyright notice across an otherwise blank tombstone in a wildflower-covered cemetery. I was tempted to again here but I held back.
Steve Schwartzman
March 24, 2023 at 9:15 AM
Wow, the field is just gorgeous! I can’t pick a favorite between these two.
circadianreflections
March 24, 2023 at 11:08 AM
No need to choose: you can have them both, just as I did.
Steve Schwartzman
March 24, 2023 at 11:12 AM
Are blank tombstones commonplace there? I guess there can be unknown cadavers. Too bad because that is quite a wonderful spot to spend eternity…or a few hours’ photoshoot.
Steve Gingold
March 24, 2023 at 1:50 PM
Most tombstones I’ve found in these old cemeteries have inscriptions. In some cases, weathering has worn the inscription away. I don’t remember about this one but I suspect it did have a name on the other side. The grave I showed 10 days ago had no marking that I could find:
I’ll take a wildflower-covered cemetery over a sanitized one anytime.
Steve Schwartzman
March 24, 2023 at 2:45 PM
One reason we opted for cremation and having our ashes scattered in a place of our choosing was the lack of desire to be entombed in a cement burial vault surrounded by hundreds of others and a lawn that gets mowed.
Steve Gingold
March 24, 2023 at 3:40 PM
That’s understandable for people who love nature. You may recall that five years ago I scattered the ashes of an Austin elderly friend of ours at Garden in the Woods in Framingham. One website says this: “Over the last several years, cremation has gained in popularity, surpassing burial as the most popular choice.” I heard the same thing on television the other day.
Steve Schwartzman
March 24, 2023 at 3:46 PM
Cost is also a factor. Average burial in a vault which some cities require is over $6000. Average cremation with burial in a vault is around $4500. But cremation with ashes spread somewhere is much less. My father’s was @$1500 with me spreading the ashes in a bay connected to the Atlantic where my mother’s were also. 16 years apart so I doubt that their ashes ever met up. I am sure by our time it will be much more than my parents were but still much less than a traditional burial. We’d rather see, so to speak, that money go to one of the charitable organizations we have designated.
Steve Gingold
March 24, 2023 at 4:13 PM
That sounds like a good use of your money after you’re gone. Burials can be unnecessarily expensive.
In terms of people’s ashes meeting up, take hope. I read years ago that we all breathe atoms that Leonardo da Vinci once breathed. I looked for an article to that effect just now and found one:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg15020308-500-the-last-word/
Steve Schwartzman
March 24, 2023 at 4:46 PM
Similarly, we all drink water that has gone through a myriad of changes and sources. On the gross side, even urination eventually becomes potable water at some point in the rain cycle. Organic material travels through various life cycles. Fungi turn dead organisms into food for trees and garden plants and eventually us. Our planet is constantly evolving in one way or another.
Steve Gingold
March 24, 2023 at 5:16 PM
As has been said: the only constant is change.
Steve Schwartzman
March 24, 2023 at 6:10 PM
The colors in the first image are stunning. Why would your Austin friend choose Garden in the Woods? A Massachusetts native?
tomwhelan
March 25, 2023 at 9:52 AM
She wasn’t a Massachusetts native but she’d been a long-time member of Garden in the Woods and supported its mission.
Yes, the colors are great in many places around here now.
Steve Schwartzman
March 26, 2023 at 6:45 AM
Nature knows how to combine colours! 🙂
Ann Mackay
March 26, 2023 at 5:33 AM
Often, yes, but bluebonnets have a knack for crowding out any other colors.
Steve Schwartzman
March 26, 2023 at 8:17 AM
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