'F' Flora's Fight for Texas State Flower

I first heard this story from my Aunts Bea and Irene as they stitched on their Mother Flora's Bluebonnet quilt block.

  I sat quietly watching their needles make tiny stitches around the hexagon flower garden block.  Irene started the story, "Sister, How many years has it been since we pieced this top".  Bea answered, "I believe it was right after Mama said she wanted Bluebonnets in her flower garden."

"That's right, I remember now", Irene said and launched into the Bluebonnet story.

Mama was a member of the Colonial Dames of America in Texas.  They were instrumental in getting the Bluebonnet named as the State Flower.  Remember Sister, when she told us about speaking before the Texas Legislature to convince them to pick the Bluebonnet over the Cactus?

There she was debating the merits of a flower that only blooms in the spring, lasts for only a couple of months and is difficult to grow from seed, against *Cactus Jack.  He certainly had the upper hand, being a known politician and promoting a plant that was found from Brownsville to Amarillo and from Texarkanna to El Paso. 

Whereas the Bluebonnet grows mostly in Southern and Central Texas.  Beatrice piped in with, "I loved it when Mama told about how she whipped the *Vice President of the United States on the floor of the Texas Legislature with a Lil Ole Blue Flower.

After Flora's passionate speech on the floor of the Texas Legislature in 1901, the 'Lupinus subcarnosus', sandy land bluebonnet or buffalo clover became the only species of bluebonnet recognized as the state flower of Texas.  Wikipedia

Great Aunt Flora and her sisters owned and operated 'The Wall Flower Shop' in Wall, Texas.  The four sisters...Flora, Fern, Fauna and Fuschia were founding and charter members of 'The Dames'.  Their shop became known as 'The Great Wall Flower Shop' and the Bluebonnet their ©Trademark.

You may be on the plains or the mountains or down where the sea breezes blow, but bluebonnets are one of the prime factors that make the state the most beautiful land that we know."  W.Lee O'Daniel, 34th Governor of Texas 1939-1941

*Cactus Jack, aka  John Nance Garner, Vice President of the United States 1931-1933. 

       

Disclaimer...Fact: Irene and Bea are my paternal Aunts.  Bluebonnet Quilt block is from my collection.  My Grandmother's name was Estella and her sister was Ella...close enough alphabetically to Flora.
Fact: Colonial Dames of America in Texas and Texas Legislature account of the Bluebonnet becoming the State Flower is true.  My Aunts, Grandmother, Great Aunt Ella and myself are descendants of Colonial ancestors/Revolutionary War Sons of Liberty and could be Colonial Dames in Texas...too much paper work.  
Fiction: Aunt Ferna, Fern, Fauna and Fuschia and The Great Wall Flower Shop.  Photo from my collection of Vintage Photos. 

Thanks for visiting Where Bluebonnets Grow