What's Still Blooming: A Summer Walk Around Wayside

Everyone knows the Texas Hill Country in April — the bluebonnets, the roadside carpets of blue, the traffic of people pulling over for photos. But here's the secret the postcards don't tell you: the Hill Country doesn't stop blooming when the bluebonnets fade. It just changes color.

By the time summer settles in over Wimberley, the blue has given way to gold. Walk the paths around Wayside in July and you'll find zexmenia — a tough little Hill Country native, also called Texas creeping-oxeye — catching the low evening light, its yellow-orange heads swaying over the dry grass. They're tougher than they look. These are the blooms built for Texas heat, the ones that keep going long after the spring show has packed up.

Down along the fence line and the walkways, the red yucca sends up tall coral spikes that the hummingbirds work over at dusk. It's one of those plants that looks effortless and is anything but — blooming stubbornly through the hottest months, adding a flush of color right where you'd expect the landscape to give up.

The trick to summer wildflowers here is timing. Come out in the first hour after sunrise or the last hour before dark, when the heat backs off and the light goes soft and golden. That's when the blooms photograph best, when the bees and hummingbirds are busiest, and when a slow walk around the property feels less like a chore and more like the whole point.

You don't have to go anywhere to find them. They're right here — along the paths between the cottages, out past the RV sites, tucked into the native beds by the porches. Bring your coffee in the morning or your wine in the evening, and take the long way around.

The bluebonnets get all the attention. But summer at Wayside has its own quieter kind of gold.

Planning a visit? The cottages and RV sites at Wayside Wimberley put you five minutes from the Square and right in the middle of the blooms. Check availability and book your stay.