We might be biased, but we think every day is a good day for visiting historic cemeteries, no matter the season. Visitors in April and May, however, may be in for a special treat. A growing number of cemetery caretakers are allowing for nature to take its course during spring, resulting in a stunning show of wildflowers.
Visitors flock to places such as Galveston’s Broadway Historic Cemetery District for the showy stands of bright yellow coreopsis and to Rockport Cemetery, where gravestones peek out from a multi-colored floral blanket. Drive by any day in spring and you’ll see people with their cameras, artists with their easels, and naturalists with their binoculars. The wildflowers don’t just attract people—they draw in birds, butterflies, bees and other pollinators.
Aside from beauty, however, cemetery caretakers can realize another benefit. Growing wildflowers can help them save some money. That’s because in order to achieve a good crop of flowers each year, caretakers have to cease mowing for three to five months from late winter until the wildflowers have dropped their seeds. Lawn maintenance is the largest annual expense for cemeteries, so skipping the mowers for a few months out of the year can give a little breathing room in an always-tight budget. (Gravestones also benefit from this mowing break; the most common cause of damage to the stones comes from lawn maintenance.)
The Rockport Cemetery Association began cultivating their spring flowers a little over 20 years ago, according to president Michael Hynes. It started in one very small area of the cemetery with a small patch of wildflowers that they let go to seed before mowing. Wanting to increase the coverage at a more rapid pace than would happen naturally, they purchased seed to plant over a larger area to give things a jumpstart. It has taken some time, but Hynes estimates they now have about 80% coverage and expect complete coverage of the 14-acre cemetery in a few more years.
If your cemetery organization is thinking about establishing a wildflower program, Hynes has some advice: be prepared to take a few complaints, at least at first. Wildflowers are beautiful when in bloom, but in order to get a good show again next year, you have to wait patiently for the seed heads to mature and drop. The plants aren’t so attractive at that stage. Some people might even call them ugly. In the beginning, Hynes said the cemetery association fielded a number of complaints about the “neglected” condition of the cemetery. Now they make sure to get the word out early through their newsletter so people understand the reasoning.
If there are any drawbacks at all to covering a cemetery in wildflowers, it’s that they can hide hazards. It’s easy to stump your toe on a low-lying gravemarker and it’s hard to see those beds of angry fire ants. So be careful, but don’t let it stop you from visiting. Spring is almost over!
Read more about wildflowers in cemeteries on Texas Time Travel and use our Historic Sites Atlas to locate cemeteries on the backroads near you.
