Click the tartan to view its entry in The Scottish Registers of Tartans which includes registration details, restrictions, and registrant information.
Unregistered tartans may link to one of the web's online design environments for similar information.
For any questions about reproduction of designs or weaving of these tartans, please contact the registrant directly or via this website.
Blue Bonnet Festival
"In April did you ever see
Texas uplands in their dress of blue,
Washed and cleaned and lush and free.
Vying the sky in deeper hue?"
Have you felt bluebonnets 'neath your feet
As you viewed their distant tints
Melt to a level line and meet in a
Blend of earth and sky complete?"
~ Texas in the Spring, Mae Warthen Parrish, c. 1940
Welcome, bluebonnets! it’s spring and festival time! Each year, the Texas landscape turns an unmistakable shade of purple-blue as the state’s beloved wildflower comes into bloom, celebrated with festivals and roadside admiration alike. This tartan was first adopted as the Sesquicentennial tartan and later became the official Texas State Tartan in May of 1989.
Its colours are inspired by the bluebonnet flower, a lupin found widely across Texas. As the flower matures, its deep blue petals develop flecks of wine red—reflected in the tartan’s design.
Bluebonnets, often called buffalo clover, flourish across the southwestern United States. While Texas is their most famous home, they thrive more broadly in open, sunny regions with well-drained soil—particularly in Oklahoma, Louisiana, and parts of New Mexico. Some species of Lupinus are also found much farther west, carpeting hillsides in California and stretching up into the Pacific Northwest, though these are often different varieties rather than the classic Texas bluebonnet.
Their name comes from the distinctive shape of the petals, said to resemble the bonnets worn by pioneer women to shield themselves from the sun—a small echo of the past tucked into each bloom.
The modern tradition of welcoming these wild displays owes much to Lady Bird Johnson, whose highway beautification efforts in the late 1960s encouraged the planting and preservation of native flowers. Thanks to that vision, bluebonnets have become a familiar and much-anticipated sign of spring along Texas roadsides.
As a historical aside, “blue bonnets” carry a different meaning in Scotland. There, the term refers to a traditional wool cap, dyed blue and widely worn from the 16th to 18th centuries. Those who wore them were sometimes called “blue bonnets” themselves—many associated with the Jacobite cause and the supporters of the exiled Stuart kings. 💙 💚 ❤️ 🤍 💛 🌷 🌷 🌷 🇺🇸
Held in April, the annual Texas Blue Bonnet festival pays homage the the state flower of Texas.
The blue bonnet, is one of five species of lupines, all vying for the most popular state flower top spot, all of which bloom in the early to late spring in shades of blue, sometimes with purple and red tips. It is also sometimes known as "buffalo clover."
The colours of the Texas Blue Bonnet district tartan owe their selection to the bluebonnet flower, a member of the lupine family, which is widespread in many parts of Texas. The flower changes colour with the passing of time, the 'brim' becoming flecked with wine red. In 1989 it was adopted as the Texas state tartan.
For more about the Bluebonnet Festival, click the field of flowers.