'Wild'flowers in Captivity
My wife and I took a short RoadTrip this past Saturday up the road a couple of hours to Boyce Thompson Arboretum. The beauty of the place, besides the obvious beauty of the plants and setting,
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is that something is guaranteed to be in bloom. Note that there are guided tours on several topics included in the admission price. We took the nearly 2 hour Wildflowers of the Sonora Desert tour and what was remarkable was that many of the plants growing in the arboretum were cultivated from seeds and other samples gathered from the wild in the surrounding area. The arboretum is a 2 hour drive from Tucson, and probably an hour or so from Phoenix. If you have the time and interest while you are in central to southeastern Arizona, by all means - drop in.
AZBuck
Ashford Mill is firing off nicely this year
I'm just back from a 300 mile cruise to Death Valley National Park. Wind from a low pressure front made for some challenging photo taking conditions.. But here are a couple views I snapped from the Ashford Mill site area (near the southeastern section of Death Valley):
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This is Notched-leaf Phacelia and it's going to be a great year.
Desert Gold is coming on strong -- it's not as amazing as the bloom of 2005, but certainly better than anything we've seen in recent years....
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Looking south.... (Sarah Burgess, capturing and slowing the wind...)
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Photo by Michael Dickman -- Looking north from the mill site
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Photo by Michael Dickman -- close-up of Desert Gold
Perfection in a desert wildflower -- A Desert Five Spot
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Photo by Michael Dickman
Mark
46 Photos in the brand new slideshow
Megan's posted a new article about the incredible wildflower bloom at Death Valley this year. Great, great photos here.
Mark
How many different varieties can you name?
This is a quick view taken from the Artists Drive on April 19th -- That's Lake Manly in the distance. I can see six varieties of wildflowers here... How many can you see? Do you know the names?
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Happy Hunting!
Mark
Wildflowers are out there
It's time to wake-up this sleepy thread.
This is not going to be a banner year for wildflowers in the Mojave Desert and southern California -- Much of the normal rainy season was bone dry and although there have been some very wet storms in the last 30 days, most have come to late to generate much flowering this year.
That being said, there are some new wildflower sites that I really like....
Latest field reports from the California Poppy Reserve
The 2012 bluebonnet season in Texas
Texas WILDFLOWER VIEWING SITES
And we've not converted this route to the RTA Custom Maps yet (shhhhh) but it's always been a good one for us when looking for wildflowers...
So.... What are you seeing in your neighborhood?
Mark
Links to get you started on your own search
Here is a list of the various wildflower articles we've published over the years -- which are somewhat evergreen -- the information never really goes out of date -- even if the bloom is different each year!
Antelope Valley report (originally published in 2005) with map of the area and tips for viewing.
Wildflower Road Trips -- lists of places you can explore in six different states -- plus galley of wildflowers in Death Valley.
Jaimie Bruzenak-Hall's wildflower report
Mark Holmes' report about flowers in the Anza Borrego area
