AUSTIN, Texas — The 2025 wildflower forecast is out.
Experts at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center are predicting a mixed season for spring flowers this year because of drought conditions in the Edwards Plateau and Trans-Pecos region.
Eastern parts of the state have a strong flower forecast.
The late fall drought will probably affect the early-blooming season for wildflowers like bluebonnets.
But there’s a silver lining. A sparse early season means late spring and summer flowers will have more room to flourish.
“If predicting the weather is a challenge, then predicting the wildflower bloom for a big state like Texas is even more of a challenge,” said Andrea DeLong-Amaya, Wildflower Center horticulture director. “With fluctuations in weather and micro-climate scenarios (where one small geographical area may have received different weather than others), it’s sometimes hard to make a big sweeping prediction. This is one of those years.”
The western part of the state has been in deep drought and may not see much of a show this spring, the Wildflower Center said. More rainfall has quenched the eastern part of the state, so DeLong-Amaya expects more blooms in areas such as Brenham and College Station.
The late fall drought will likely hinder this year’s early-blooming wildflowers such as bluebonnets and Texas paintbrush in the western part of the state, DeLong-Amaya said.
“Last fall’s drought influenced the number of little wildflower plants we have growing out there. I think we’ve had enough precipitation to give them a boost and get them blooming but it’s too late in the game to germinate new seeds which will affect the numbers of plants we have.”