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If you want to try planting bluebonnets that turn Hill Country fields a hue that rivals the sky, make your plans now. But beware — this flower is willful enough to make grown men weep, or at least go gray or bald while trying to coax the blooms out of the soil.

Other wildflowers might be a bit easier to grow than bluebonnets are, especially if you follow the directions of John Thomas, founder of Wildseed Farms. Thomas, who is bald, jokes that he had a full head of hair when he began his business trying to grow bluebonnets. "They’d come up and die," he said. "I found out the hard way."

Thomas, who will lead wildflower planting seminars Sept. 10, 11 and 12 at his 200-acre working wildflower farm near Fredericksburg, said his mistake with bluebonnets was trying to grow them around Houston, which is flat and gets a lot of rain. Bluebonnets don’t like "wet feet," and they prefer slopes. Those preferences make the Hill Country a natural habitat for the flower. Even so, "They are probably one of the hardest wildflowers to grow," he noted.

He will direct gardeners in the planting of wildflower seed in his 2 p.m. seminars each day at Wildseed Farms, 7 miles east of Fredericksburg on Highway 290. Some of his advice, based on years of experience, translates well to other locales. Such as:

* Plant what grows in your area. Look at the roadsides, on fences and in ditches to see what comes up naturally.

* The month of October is a good time to plant for this area and a large part of Texas. December is almost too late. Wildflowers will grow in January, Thomas says, but people who plant then and see success are lucky.

* Buy scarified seed for quick germination. Scarified seed is treated to remove growth-inhibiting properties. Collecting the seed from your plants after they have bloomed and transplanting them might not produce the results you’d like.

* Use about a pound of seed for 2,000 square feet. Distribute seed evenly between two buckets. Take one bucket and broadcast seeds by hand, as if you are feeding chickens. Walk north and south, until you have walked the whole plot back and forth. Take the other bucket and walk east and west, broadcasting the seed in the same way, to make sure you cover your area completely. This will give an even distribution.

* The best seeding time is the afternoon, when dew has disappeared. Rake the seed lightly or walk on top of it to make it stick to the soil. Broadcast the seed on loose soil, not soil with a thick crust on top of it.

* Keep the ground wet until you see seedling heads. Then put your hose away. Seedlings that get too much water will grow leggy and fail to thrive.

* Most Texas wildflowers are reseeding annuals. They die and reseed, and next year’s crop must start over from seed on the ground as well as what you add. A healthy stand takes two to three years to establish, Thomas said. "We have good years and bad," he said, noting that the beauty of the wildflower depends largely on fall rains. "Start out slow and build up."

Barbara LeDoux Elmore grew up in Johnson City and gardens in Fredericksburg. She publishes a free online garden and home newsletter. To subscribe or suggest story ideas, e-mail her at barbara@digandletdig.com.