When I was in Texas in April, the wildflowers were gorgeous. After I got home, I bought seeds for two of the iconic varieties: the poppy and the bluebell. I planted them in pots and awaited my own wildflower superbloom.
Well, it didn't quite turn out that way. The poppies sprouted but then sort of disappeared, and only two of the bluebonnet seeds made it to the flowering stage. But it's better than nothing!
Last weekend, I saw the last of the spring columbines blooming in the Colorado mountains.
I realized that I know very little about the state flower program, so I did a quick internet search.
The first state flower was the coastal rhododendron, adopted by Washington State in 1892. Fifteen thousand women voted for it and started a national trend. But it wasn't made official until 1959.
The columbine has been the Colorado State Flower since 1899, beating the Texas bluebonnet by two years. Oklahoma was the last state to adopt their flower, the Oklahoma rose, in 2004.
Flowers are chosen for their regional significance and are often assigned a virtuous quality such as resilience, serenity, or hospitality. They are as varied as the Arizona saguoro bloom, the Maine white pine cone and tassel, the Nevada sagebrush, and the Delaware peach blossom (sorry, Georgia, they beat you to it).
I would imagine that every governor who signed state flower legislation was happy to do it, as a state flower truly is a beautiful (and hopefully uncontroversial) part of a state's identity.
See a list of the state flowers here.
Have a great week!
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