Where the Wildflowers Are The Yuma Sun Wildflowers such as Sand Verbena and Ajo Lily are in bloom this season and Yumans can go out and enjoy the colors displayed throughout the desert landscape. "It is so pretty," said Karen Reichardt, a botanist with the Bureau of Land Management's Yuma Field Office. "The colors are just exquisite (and) it shows the desert in a different light."
Desert Bloom Pahrump Valley Times Photographer Richard Stephens ventured from his home in Beatty recently and made his way over to Furnace Creek in Death Valley, just across the California border. And what a mass of lovely wildflowers he ran across.
Flower Power Hits Valley The Desert Sun February showers bring March flowers? Not quite the rhyme you grew up with, but who's going to argue about the prospect of an early spring. The Coachella Valley is awash with color - greens, blues, yellows, pinks - all you have to do is look around.
Well-spaced rains promise spectacular wildflower season San Diego Union-Tribune After two years with little rainfall, San Diego County is coming into full bloom thanks to a series of storms that are reviving wildflower populations. October's wildfires may add even more drama: Plants known as “fire followers†are expected to have a field day in the burned areas.
One Oklahoma farmer used to practice no-till farming because he couldn't afford the machinery. Now, hundreds of others are following in his footsteps out of necessity.
March 02, 2008
The vistas here in this land of desert and rock feature deep canyons and striated rock formations. But the most impressive sight is yet to come. At some point next month, the gray floor of the desert will be set ablaze by carpets of wildflowers, in riotous shades of purple, yellow and red.
Aficionados maintain that witnessing desert wildflowers is one of the most rewarding experiences in nature. Fall's dramatic leaf color change is guaranteed to happen every year. Desert wildflowers are far less predictable. If good spring rains are lacking, which was largely the case in 2006 and 2007, the flowers don't appear. When nature does cooperate, for two weeks or a month the desert looks as if it has been streaked by a giant paintbrush.
This year is shaping up as one of those lucky years, due to a series of storms that swept California and the Southwest in January, followed by more rain in February. "I'm hoping it's going to be terrific," says Patrick Leary, a professor of plant biology at the College of Southern Nevada, who teaches a course in desert plants. "You suffer and wait and pray for a good year and when that year comes, you have to be out there every available moment. And then it's gone."
Adding to the allure, these wildflowers bloom in abundance in only a few spots in the world, including the deserts of Western Australia, Iran and southern Namibia. But Americans can leave their passports at home. In a good year, desert wildflowers are in abundance a short drive from some of the nation's major Western cities, including Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas and Tucson.
Desert wildflowers attract followers of singular devotion, spawning a growing number of Web sites. David Senesac, an engineer who lives in Silicon Valley, is one such fan who has his own site displaying photos from his viewing trips. He put 8,000 miles on his car in just over two months to see the stellar California blooms of 2005.
This year, he's planning to witness the wildflowers in the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, about 70 miles northeast of Los Angeles. More than nine inches of rain has fallen so far this season, more than the area usually gets in an entire year. "That large amount of rain is likely to repeat an event I last saw in 1991, which they called 'the Miracle March,'" he says. "It was one of the greatest blooms ever in Southern California."
Mr. Senesac calls the Mojave Desert, which extends from Southern California into Nevada, southwest Utah and northwest Arizona, one of the most impressive flower zones in the world, "where species from nearby areas like the Sierra Nevada mountains have somehow found a niche in the desert environment."
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Gardening in the Desert Cactus Blog People in Arizona are looking to garden with weird plants. Unusual plants. Cactus isn't enough, they want more.
New Garden -- Contrast Diane's Baja Desert Garden Blog The new garden is looking great! We planted most of it in July right before we left for Central America. It grew well during the summer and survived this summer's hurricane with no problems.
Desert Flowers A.J. in South Africa The rains come suddenly and with intensity here. The salt pan fills with water to make a shallow lake. The greening that follows comes as swiftly as the rains that caused it. The once brown landscape has a glow of life highlighted by the yellow flowers that spring to life.
still thinking about today...
