March is the great Texas spring — the month the whole state has been waiting for. Bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush ignite the roadsides, spring migration ramps up along the coast, the golden-cheeked warbler returns to the Hill Country, and the first monarchs begin moving north through the state.
Week by week in March
February 26 – March 4
- The first ruby-throated hummingbirds reach the upper Texas coast; put fresh sugar water out along the shoreline first.
- The earliest bluebonnets open in south Texas and along warm road cuts, the leading edge of the spring wildflower wave.
- After the average last frost in the south, set out tomato and pepper transplants and sow beans, corn, and squash.
- Leo the Lion climbs the eastern sky in the evening, a sure sign that spring is coming to the night sky.
March 5–11
- Black-chinned hummingbirds arrive in central and west Texas; golden-cheeked warblers return to Hill Country juniper-oak canyons.
- Bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush spread across central Texas; redbuds glow pink and winecup begins on limestone slopes.
- Plant the warm-season garden in central Texas now: tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers, and beans go in beds.
- Spica, the bright lead star of Virgo, rises in the east late evening, following the curve of the Big Dipper's handle to Arcturus.
March 12–18
- Scissor-tailed flycatchers return to the prairies, perching on fence wires; spring songbird migration starts building on the coast.
- Bluebonnets approach peak along the Highway 290 corridor, mixing with the orange-red of Indian paintbrush across the Hill Country.
- Poteet strawberries ripen now; pick fully red since they will not sweeten further once off the plant.
- The spring equinox falls around March 20, bringing nearly equal day and night across Texas as the sun crosses the equator.
March 19–25
- Coastal migration heats up; warblers, buntings, and orioles drop into Gulf-coast woodlots after crossing the open water.
- Bluebonnets peak across central Texas; pecans are still bare while redbuds finish and winecup deepens to magenta.
- Finish planting warm-season vegetables statewide; mulch new beds and begin watering transplants deeply as days warm.
- The Big Dipper rides high in the northeast in the evening; follow its pointer stars to Polaris, the steady North Star.
March 26 – April 1
- Ruby-throated hummingbirds spread inland to East Texas feeders; painted buntings begin arriving in brushy edges down south.
- Bluebonnets and paintbrush still color roadsides while the first Indian blanket firewheels open early on the coast.
- Texas 1015 onions size up toward harvest; keep tomatoes and peppers watered and watch for early aphids on new growth.
- The Beehive Cluster glows faintly in Cancer, between Gemini and Leo, a soft smudge best seen with binoculars.
Birds This Month
March is when Texas birding shifts into high gear as spring migration ramps up. The first waves of neotropical migrants — warblers, vireos, buntings, orioles, and swallows — begin pouring back across the Gulf and up through the state, and the famous coastal migrant traps at High Island, the Bolivar Peninsula, and South Padre come alive on the days a north wind grounds tired travelers. Purple martins are back at their houses, barn and cliff swallows are working the skies, and the first ruby-throated and black-chinned hummingbirds spread north and inland from the coast — time to have feeders up statewide.
The month's signature event is the return of the golden-cheeked warbler, which breeds nowhere on Earth but the Ashe-juniper and oak woodlands of central Texas. Birds arrive on the Edwards Plateau in March and begin singing from the canyons west of Austin and around the Hill Country, drawing birders from around the world to a true Texas-only specialty. Out on the prairies, the elegant scissor-tailed flycatchers are returning to their fence-wire perches.
Meanwhile the winter crowds thin and depart. The whooping cranes begin leaving the Aransas marshes for their long flight to Canada, the sandhill cranes and snow geese pull north off the coastal prairie, and the wintering ducks and sparrows dwindle through the month. Resident birds are deep into nesting — Northern cardinals, Carolina wrens, and eastern bluebirds are all on eggs or feeding young.
This month's tip: watch the weather on the coast. A spring cold front colliding with northbound migrants produces a fallout — a morning when the coastal woodlots drip with exhausted, brilliant warblers and tanagers — the most thrilling birding experience the Texas year offers.
What's Blooming
March is the wildflower month in Texas, the one the whole state plans road trips around. The Texas bluebonnet — the state flower — peaks now, washing the Hill Country roadsides and the prairies in deep blue, and it is joined by the flame-orange spikes of Indian paintbrush in the classic combination that defines a Texas spring. Mixed in across the central prairies you will find the magenta cups of winecup, the white-and-yellow of ten-petal anemone, the lavender mats of prairie verbena, and the cheerful faces of pink evening primrose (buttercups) lining the ditches.
The flowering trees join the show: the Texas redbud hits its full rose-pink peak before leafing out, and the last fragrant Mexican plum and Texas mountain laurel blooms scent the warm afternoons. In the southern and Hill Country counties the display is at its most intense early, and the bloom rolls north and west as the month goes on, so the timing of the best color depends on where you are and how wet the winter was.
Where to see it: the Highway 290 corridor between Austin and Fredericksburg, the Llano and Mason county back roads, and the Ennis Bluebonnet Trail south of Dallas are the legendary stops. The LBJ Wildflower Center in Austin is at a glorious peak. Go in the morning for the best light, stay out of private fields and off the highway shoulders' fast lanes, and never pick or trample the flowers — admire them where they grow.
Garden This Month
March is the pivotal planting month in the Texas garden, organized entirely around the last spring frost. Once that frost date has reliably passed for your area, it is time to set out the warm-season transplants you have been raising — tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant — and to direct-sow the heat-lovers: beans, squash, cucumbers, corn, melons, and okra as the soil warms. Getting tomatoes in early matters in Texas, because fruit set drops off sharply once the nights stay warm in late spring, so every week of an early start counts.
There is still a short window for the last cool-season planting — a final round of beans and greens, plus onions and potatoes in the north if you are behind — but the main job now is the warm-season transition. Work compost into the beds, mulch the new transplants to hold moisture and moderate the soil, and keep frost cloth within reach in the northern zones, where a late cold front can still surprise a March garden. In the flower beds, this is also the time to plant warm-season annuals and to leave the wildflowers to finish their show and set seed.
Zone 8a (north & north-central Texas): your average last frost falls in mid-March, so the timing is delicate around Dallas-Fort Worth — finish planting cool-season crops early, then set out tomato, pepper, and warm-season transplants only after the frost date has reliably passed, keeping frost cloth handy for a late cold snap. Plant onions and potatoes early if you have not already.
Zone 8b (central Texas, Austin area): last frost is typically early-to-mid March, so this is the big planting month — set out tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant after the frost passes, and direct-sow beans, squash, cucumbers, corn, and melons once the soil warms. Get warm crops in early, before the Hill Country heat builds.
Zone 9a (Gulf coast & south, Houston/San Antonio): frost risk is essentially over — plant tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant in earnest, and direct-sow beans, squash, cucumbers, okra, and melons now. The earlier you get warm-season crops established, the more you harvest before the summer heat shuts tomato set down.
Zone 9b (deep south Texas, Rio Grande Valley): the Valley is already well into the warm season — finish setting out all the warm-season crops now, including okra, Southern peas, and sweet potato slips, and mulch heavily, because the deep-south heat arrives early and the planting window for tomatoes is closing fast.
What's at the Farmers Market
March is a bridge month at the Texas market, with the tail of winter overlapping the first taste of spring. The famous Texas Ruby Red grapefruit and the last Valley oranges are winding down but still good — choose fruit heavy for its size and store it loose in the refrigerator. Joining them is the first true sign of Texas spring on the table: Poteet strawberries begin arriving from the sandy fields south of San Antonio, fragrant and deep red.
Strawberries do not ripen further once picked, so choose berries that are fully red and glossy with fresh green caps, skip any with white shoulders or soft spots, and refrigerate them unwashed, washing only just before use to keep them from going mushy. The cool-season vegetables are still strong — carrots, beets, broccoli, cabbage, kale, and spinach are abundant and sweet from the cool soil — and the first tender spring lettuces, radishes, green onions, and English peas begin showing as the gardens wake up.
For selection and storage: pick greens and lettuces with crisp, unwilted leaves and keep them dry in the crisper; store carrots and beets with their tops trimmed off; keep strawberries cold and dry and use them quickly, since they are the most perishable thing at the stall. Early shopping still wins in March — the first strawberries and the freshest spring greens are the first things to sell out.
Night Sky This Month
March is the handoff between the brilliant winter sky and the rising spring constellations, and the spring equinox around March 20 marks the point where day and night fall into balance and the nights begin to shorten. Early in the evening, Orion and Sirius still blaze in the southwest, the last of the great winter show, while in the east the springtime sky takes over — the backwards-question-mark Sickle of Leo the Lion, led by bright Regulus, climbs the eastern sky as the evening goes on.
Use the Big Dipper, high in the north on March evenings, as your guide: follow the curve of its handle to arc to Arcturus, the bright orange star of Boötes rising in the east, a sure sign that spring has arrived. There is no major meteor shower in March — the year's next strong, reliable shower comes later in the spring — so this is a month for tracing constellations and the bright stars rather than for watching for meteors.
The dark skies of West Texas, particularly Big Bend and the Davis Mountains around McDonald Observatory, are excellent on a clear March night before the summer haze sets in. Planet positions and the exact timing of any minor activity shift from year to year, so check the printable Texas night-sky guide for this year's specific viewing nights and planet visibility from your latitude.
Butterflies & Pollinators
March is when butterflies return to Texas in force, and the headline is the spring monarch migration. The overwintering monarchs leave their Mexican mountains and funnel north through Texas now, the females laying eggs on the fresh spring milkweed as they go — Texas is the crucial nursery for the generation that will carry the migration on toward the north. Watching for monarchs moving steadily northward across the Hill Country and central prairies is one of the season's quiet pleasures.
The resident species wake up alongside them. Black swallowtails patrol gardens, laying on dill, fennel, and parsley; pipevine swallowtails flash iridescent blue along wooded edges; gulf fritillaries return to the passionflower vines; and queens drift through the milkweed patches with their monarch cousins. The abundant spring wildflowers — bluebonnets, verbena, and the rest — provide a rich nectar supply that fuels the whole reawakening.
To bring them in: the most important thing you can do in March is have native milkweed up and growing for the northbound monarchs (antelope-horns and green milkweed suit Texas well) — the spring generation depends on it. Add passionflower for the fritillaries, dill and fennel for the swallowtails, and a nectar succession of lantana, mistflower, and zinnias, and leave the spring wildflowers to feed the travelers passing through.
Trees This Month
March is leaf-out and bloom month for the Texas trees, the landscape turning green and pink almost week by week. The Texas redbud reaches its full rose-pink peak now, flowering along its bare branches before the heart-shaped leaves emerge, and the last Mexican plum blossoms finish their fragrant white display. Across the eastern and central state the deciduous hardwoods begin to break bud, the cedar elms, oaks, and bottomland trees flushing a tender new green.
The live oaks finish their late-winter leaf exchange and push their fresh canopy, releasing the heavy oak pollen that, with the lingering Ashe-juniper, marks the central-Texas allergy season. Along the Hill Country rivers the bald cypress just begin to show their first soft, feathery green at the branch tips. One notable holdout: the pecan, the state tree, is famously late to leaf out and stays bare well into spring — an old Texas saying holds that you should not plant tender crops until the pecans leaf out, which often is not until April.
Weather & Daylight
Across Texas, a typical March day averages a high near 71°F and a low near 46°F, with about 2.1 inches of precipitation — statewide averages from the 1991–2020 U.S. climate normals.
Highs climbing past 70 and lows near 46 make for pleasant, breezy days, though spring showers grow noticeably wetter.
| Average high | 71°F |
|---|---|
| Average low | 46°F |
| Precipitation | 2.1 in |
| Sunrise (mid-month) | 7:42 CT |
| Sunset (mid-month) | 19:39 CT |
Figures are statewide averages over the 1991–2020 U.S. climate normals; local conditions vary with elevation and distance from the coast. Sunrise and sunset are computed for a midstate point on the 15th (CT).
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Same month elsewhere: March in Utah · March in Vermont · March in Virginia