it might be that your soil doesn't have the rhizobium that it needs. You can acquire that from the lady bird johnson site or fromWe are pretty alkaline here in the Austin area but we do have different varieties of Texas Blubonnets. 5 in all. I have included the propagation page on Tx. Blue bonnets that you might find helpful . I have also included the lady bird Johnson's wildflower site . You can go ask mr. Smarty pants. He answers questions from all over the country. Blue bonnets grows on clays to the east of central Texas and the sands that are also to the easts of us. but they might be a different species. They have a cool plant data base and you can go in it and get to the another site at the bottom of the plant pages that will show you where the different species ranges are. What kind of soil do you have and what is your annual rainfall? Sometimes it takes several years of planting the seed to get a recurring patch. Not all the seeds will sprout the first year.
http://www.wildflower.org/clearinghouse/propagation/Lupinus_texensis.pdf

http://www.wildflower.org/expert/

It seems that it require good amount of rainfall in the fall and a bit in the winter then good amount of it in the spring to get the best show from bluebonnets. At least that's what I observed in the wild nearby me and I even grow Alamo Fire bluebonnet and it was very neat to have all red flowers like that.

Aren't you supposed to plant the seeds in Fall? At our farm they are beautiful every year despite total neglect. I am interested in growing some here at our home in the city. I have seen some posts here that said to plant in October, but when I looked it up at TAMU, it says August, so.... When do you plant your seeds?

I planted seeds in October. That was in 2007 when it rained a lot. It was perfect. Soaking rain in the fall and spring and it was spectacular everywhere in the wild.

This field was right by my neighborhood... Probably the best show I've ever seen in my life.

I understand as nitrogen fixers they need cruddy soil that grass has robbed of it's nutrients. PJ

They grow wild, in TX, so I just enjoy them that way. (smile)

PJ, I wouldn't know about cruddy soil. That field is all clay soil but it is very crumbly. Perfect for gardening for sure! For the fun of it, I planted red ones in that field. I'm curious to see if they came up... It would be funny if someone gets all excited and having "discovered" red ones...

I also found light pink, baby blue and pure white ones in that field.

Oxygen! Need oxygen!
Lou midlothian tx: Breath taking photo! If Wordsworth had wandered there, daffodils' praise would n'er been penned!
Thank you!
Also thanks for the knowledge that they DO like water.
Wantonamara: Thanks for pointing me to the Ladybird site.
For others reading and interested: the adobe link didn't work for me, but I found the following helpful:
http://www.wildflower.org/howto/show.php?id=1&frontpage=true
Of course, websites unfortunately rename their reference pages on any whim it seems,so I don't know how long this link will be good. Hopefully, http://www.wildflower.org will always get you there as it did me.
Be warned though that the rhizobium is only available at The Wild Goose Chase, LOL.
Goodness, so gracious of you all.
Thanks again!