Who Needs The Hill Country? Check Out Houston's Wildflowers

The Texas Hill Country has arrived in Houston -- at least in the form of bluebonnets and Indian paintbrushes. Patches of wildflowers can be spotted in green spaces along highways and in parks throughout the city.

Volunteers of the City of Houston seeded 50 acres of land last September in the hopes of producing blooming wildflowers this spring. The flowers were planted at the following locations:

The South Braeswood esplanades near Linkwood, Mason Park, Sylvan Rodriguez Park, Stude Park, the Rafferty Memorial in Willow Waterhole Park, Memorial Drive at I-610, the Memorial Drive/Waugh Drive cloverleaf intersection, T.C. Jester Boulevard at I-610, the Columbia Tap Trailhead, Almeda Road between Old Spanish Trail and El Paseo, and Reed Road between Almeda Road and Highway 288.

We visited seven of these locations and ranked them (best to last) based on access convenience and the amount of flowers.

1. Stude Park (North of I-10 on Studemont and White Oak)
Being a park, this site has straightforward parking and is a good spot to sit down in the flowers without nearby traffic. The bluebonnets line the bayou as it circles the park.

Photos by Hallie Jordan

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2. Memorial Drive
Flowers are planted on the sides of the road from Memorial Park to 610. It seems most convenient to park just off of Memorial Loop (the road surrounding the park) and walk. The parking here is fairly close and this part of Memorial Drive has several bike and walking paths that make flower-viewing a cinch.

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3. South Braeswood esplanades near Linkwood
This flower patch was a bit of a challenge to find, but is near the intersection of Stella Link and S. Braeswood. Though the flowers are in the median in the road, they are very, very plentiful and in full bloom. There is no specific parking for these flowers but there are nearby lots.

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4. The intersection of Memorial Drive and Waugh
The flowers here are plentiful and in bloom, but access is difficult. They are planted between roads making it difficult to park and walk. Probably best to view while driving.

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5. Almeda road between Old Spanish Trail and El Paseo
Another location to benefit your driving experience. These, though consisting of many different flower types, are planted in another median in the middle of a large road with fast traffic
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6. Mason Park
Once again, being in a park makes access to these flowers easy. However, they were unremarkable and on a bayou bank rather hard to get to even on foot.

7. Reed Road between Almeda and 288
Nothing. As far as we could see no flowers have sprouted yet in this spot.