A Spectacular Show of Wildflowers

Mother Nature is already wearing her Easter bonnet. The wildflowers that brighten up the Southland every springtime began to blossom early this year.

During the past month wildflowers have splashed their colors across the low desert and are reaching full bloom in higher elevations. The show is especially spectacular in the Mojave Desert, including Antelope Valley.

That’s where you’ll find a 1,752-acre reserve devoted to the preservation of our state flower, the California poppy. Its brilliant orange blossoms are spread across the rolling rural landscape a few miles west of Lancaster.

To help you find other varieties in that valley, volunteer members of the Lancaster Woman’s Club will staff a wildflower information center during the first three weeks of April. Later in the month there’ll be a wildflower festival at Arvin in Kern County.

Variety of Blooms

On a high-desert outing you should see owl-clover, desert dandelion, tidy-tips, alkali goldfields, coreopsis, filaree, loco weed, cream-cups, pygmy lupine and fiddle-neck.

Easiest to recognize is the poppy, and you’ll find dazzling fields of them at the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve.

Get there from Los Angeles by driving north on Interstate 5 and the Antelope Valley Freeway (California 14) to the Avenue I exit at Lancaster. Turn left under the freeway and head west 13 miles to the reserve entrance (Avenue I becomes Lancaster Road along the way).

Citizens who wanted to save the rapidly disappearing poppy donated funds and land for this wildflower sanctuary. It became part of the state’s department of parks in 1976 and is open from early March through May. Hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily and admission is $3 per vehicle.

Pinheiro’s Watercolors

Almost buried in a hillside is the interpretive center that was built six years ago and is dedicated to a wildflower preservationist and painter, the late Jane S. Pinheiro. More than 150 of her watercolors are displayed on a rotating basis.

Also look at a video program about wildflowers and the poppy reserve. On weekends at 1 p.m. park rangers or docents lead nature walks from the center. Ask them for a map that’s marked with other areas in bloom.

A gift shop in the visitor center sells flower identification books and items with a poppy motif. The reserve telephone is (805) 724-1180, or call the state park high-desert headquarters in Lancaster, (805) 942-0662.

Saturday through April 24 a Wildflower Information Center will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily in the Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery.

Get there from the poppy reserve or Antelope Valley Freeway by going east on Avenue I to Sierra Highway, then turning right (south) to No. 44801 just beyond Lancaster Boulevard.

Seeds for Sale

Examine the dozens of wildflowers on display so they’ll be easier to identify in the field, and pick up a map that tells you where to find them. You also can view a wildflower slide presentation and more paintings by Pinheiro. A gift shop features wildflower items, including seeds to plant in your own garden.

The center’s wildflower hot line is (805) 948-1322. The museum/art gallery telephone is (805) 948-8655.

In neighboring Kern County the Board of Trade issues wildflower bulletins that will direct you to areas in bloom. They’re posted at the visitor information center in Bakersfield just off the California 99 freeway at 2101 Oak St. Or you can call (805) 861-2367 weekdays between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Southeast of Bakersfield the town of Arvin will give a wildflower festival April 23-24. Get there by driving east on California 223 from Interstate 5 or California 99.

The festival began eight years ago to raise money to reseed fields with California poppies that were blown away with the topsoil during windstorms in 1977. Each year the seeds have been dropped from an airplane over 45-acre sections, and this season are finally beginning to blossom.

Small-Town Doings

The small-town celebration features a parade, greased pig contest, food and craft booths and musical entertainment. Call the Arvin Chamber of Commerce for details, (805) 854-2265.

Choose a sunny day for a wildflower excursion, especially if California poppies are on your itinerary. Cloudy or windy weather causes their petals to close.

Desert winds often blow by mid-afternoon, so you may want to get an early start. If you decide to overnight in the Antelope Valley, Lancaster has several nice lodgings along Sierra Highway just east of the California 14 freeway.

Less than a mile south of the Wildflower Information Center is the Desert Inn with double rooms for $53/$56; phone (805) 942-8401.

Just beyond is the Antelope Valley Inn with double rooms at $53; call (805) 948-4651. Both inns have popular restaurants and serve Sunday brunch.

The Essex House on 10th Street West offers doubles at $52 as well as rooms with a sauna/whirlpool bath for $60; phone (805) 948-0961.

The hotel is across the street from the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce, where you can pick up lists of lodgings and restaurants. Call (805) 948-4518.

Round trip from Los Angeles to Lancaster for a field day among the wildflowers is 162 miles.