Friday, May 30, 2008

Links for the areas below can be found be by using the Wildflower Site Links

Welcome to the 26^th annual Wildflower Hotline, brought to you by the Theodore Payne Foundation, a non-profit nursery, seed source, bookstore and education center dedicated to the preservation of wildflowers and California native plants.

As spring wanes, wildflowers at low elevations are fading and going to seed. All in all, it’s been a good season with spectacular color in many spots. The deserts flowered early and well. Poppy displays were generous and long-lasting. Burn areas sprouted flowers that hadn’t been seen in years.

But the season isn’t over yet. A bit of rain and mild weather have boosted the show close to home. And flowering continues into summer at high elevations and in northern parks and wild lands. This week’s report, which will be our last of the year, includes prime locations in southern and central California.

Cuyamaca Rancho State Park in San Diego County has been a great destination for weeks. These days, you’ll see foothill penstemon, California milkweed and Cuyamaca larkspur in various spots; and southern California buttercup in meadows around the lake. Look for ivory-colored Dunn’s mariposa lily, a rare and endangered native bulb, at the Viewpoint. Though shade-loving Sierra gooseberry has finished flowering, the shrubby plant in the park are now hung with spiny red fruit. This species and other native gooseberries and currants are very popular with native birds.

Kern County has plenty to offer, especially at high elevations. It’s absolutely gorgeous in Sequoia-King’s Canyon National Parks. Starting at 2000 feet, there are farewell-to-spring and other clarkias, yucca, Mexican elderberry, chamise and buckeye. Around 3500 feet, you’ll find rose-pink redbud and golden-yellow flannel bush.

In the southern Sierras, around the Trail of 100 Giants in the Sequoia National Forest, one traveler reports snow plants and a fantastic display of mountain pride penstemon – both tucked into granite outcroppings near Alder Creek.

Along Mountain 99 near Fairview, she found penstemon in shades of blue, deep purple and pink, growing with ceanothus, hemlock, golden eardrops, mariposa lilies and many other colorful natives.

California poppies are blooming profusely along Caliente-Bodfish Road in Walker Basin, outside Bakersfield. They’re joined by white lupine, spider lupine, deerweed, primrose, morning glory and more.

Circuitous Breckenridge Road, from its junction with Caliente-Bodfish Road to Bakersfield, is totally amazing with clarkias, prickly poppy, western wallflower, bush monkey-flower, woolly milkweed and much more! 358

Flannel bush is in full bloom in the Devil’s Punchbowl Natural Area. To see them, take the Horse Trail’s right-hand fork from the south side of the parking lot. To your left, you’ll spy a large meadow with bright-red scarlet bugler, a species of penstemon that hummingbirds can’t resist.

Last week, they had five inches of snow and temperatures in the 30s around Big Pines in the Angeles National Forest. Even so, wildflower chasers will find yucca, lupine, scarlet bugler and wallflower in bloom.

Chaparral yucca is having a great year on rocky hillsides throughout the region. Hundreds of plants are blooming now along State Route 2, the Angeles Crest Highway, from La Crescenta toward Big Pines.

Hungry Valley, south of Gorman, is another good spot for viewing this succulent’s towering spikes of ivory-white flowers.

The poppies have finished their show at the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve. Now travelers can enjoy the quiet and also view plenty of wildlife, such as hawks, meadowlarks, side-blotched lizards, gopher snakes and rattlesnakes. If you’re lucky, you may even spot a coyote of bobcat.

Every color of the rainbow is represented by flowering plants at the Theodore Payne Foundation in Sun Valley. In addition to white-and-yellow Matilija poppy, we have gold blazing star, bright red Baja fairy duster, purple Cleveland sage, chartreuse Conejo [cone-eh’-hoe] buckwheat and much more. Please visit our 22-acre canyon site for a taste of unspoiled California. Our retail nursery, bookstore, seed room and gardens are open to the general public. We also offer classes year-round in our recently renovated Education Center.

This is our last report of the season. The Foundation’s Wildflower Hotline will return next March through May with the best locations for viewing wildflowers in and around Southern California.

You can support the Wildflower Hotline and the Foundation’s ongoing mission to protect California’s natural habitats and educate the public about gardening with native plants. Donations are tax-deductible and can be made through our website, by mail or by visiting our headquarters in Sun Valley.

Until next year: Drive safely and enjoy the beautiful plants of California.