Mother of Texas Bluebonnets

As we honor our mothers this Sunday, we can collectively honor the Mother of Texas Bluebonnets, Sallie Ward Beretta of San Antonio. Sallie Ward Beretta was a most interesting woman whose efforts may have saved our beautiful Texas bluebonnets. It seems her efforts are overshadowed by those of the public figure of Lady Bird Johnson, whose mission was to beautify America with wildflowers, and which led to the establishment of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin.

In the 1920s bluebonnets were so overpicked Sallie Ward Beretta was concerned they would be picked into extinction. She led a conservation campaign that was begun at a luncheon for the City Federation of Women’s Clubs. Area San Antonio Girl Scouts Council and garden clubs joined her cause and soon other volunteers were gathered to collect seed from local fields. Bluebonnet seed was mailed around the country.

Beretta promoted the slogan “Save the Wildflowers of Texas.” It was her conservation efforts, which implored people to not pull up bluebonnet plants by their roots. Each year Girl Scouts gathered bluebonnet seeds and planted

Each year Girl Scouts gathered bluebonnet seeds and planted them along the highways. Plants were sold in markets and stores that likely were grown from seed sown by the Girl Scouts. Beretta even directed a film made by the Girl Scouts featuring scenes of bluebonnets.

She was tireless in promoting the public identity of bluebonnets. At her urging Laredo’s Blue Bonnet Garden Club did not change its proposed name to the Border Lassies, and the Sunken Garden Theater in Brackenridge Park did change its name to the Bluebonnet Bowl.

The woman known as “the environmental godmother of Houston” was Terry Hershey. She worked tirelessly on efforts that led to the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act in 1972. She served on civic boards that were concerned with environmental issues and helped found the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin.

Lady Bird Johnson is known for reminding people, “Even in the poorest neighborhoods you can find a geranium in a coffee can, a window box set against the scaling side of a tenement, a border of roses struggling to live in a tiny patch of open ground.” She is loved in Texas for her support for beautification projects.

Perhaps these women gained inspiration from Sallie Ward Beretta, the “Bluebonnet Lady of Texas.”

Information from April 2021 “Texas Co-Op Power”

Ellen Peffley Harp, a retired professor of horticulture at Texas Tech University, writes about gardening for several Texas newspapers.