Austin 360 Go wild on these flowers. After an open call for submissions, Austin's Neill-Cochran House Museum in West Campus will host an art exhibit to celebrate the bluebonnet. "Hope for Spring: The Flower of Texas" will showcase the works of local artists who have interpreted the state flower in both 2-D and 3-D mediums. The museum will accept submissions through March 7. There's a $10 application fee, and artists must be 18 or older. The museum is owned by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Texas, which lobbied for the bluebonnet to be named Texas' state flower in the early 1900s. The group took a painting of bluebonnets by artist Mode Walker onto the floor of the Texas Legislature and "placed bluebonnet bouquets on each politician’s desk, helping to secure the vote," according to a news release's account.