Bloomin’ Good Poppies . . . Soon : The new Lancaster Poppy Festival is just one excuse to celebrate spring’s blush.

Come spring, this city is known for its endless fields of orange poppies. But how spectacular the blooms are each year depends a lot on the weather.

Following this year’s extremely wet winter, there are high hopes that the flower display will be excellent, if late--perhaps three to four weeks away, according to the district superintendent for the State Parks and Recreation Department in Lancaster.

“A few of the early forerunners are in bloom, but we’re quite a ways away from the park bloom. The rain is actually holding them back,” superintendent Jim Geary said before this section went to press on Wednesday.

In light of the last few years of drought, it may surprise some to learn that Geary reports last year’s bloom was “spectacular.”

“The best I’ve seen in 10 years. Some said, the best ever,” he said. The reason: Early winter rains in December prompted a profusion of small poppy plants in January. Warm, sunny days fueled their growth. But this year, constant, heavy rain and cool, cloudy days have set the bloom back.

“We’re just kind of waiting to see what will happen. The flowers seem to do what they want to do when they want to do it.”

And since there’s no way to predict the blooms, city officials had to make an educated guess on which weekend to schedule their first California Poppy Festival this year. So, whether the fields are awash in orange or not, the festival will take place Saturday, April 11, in Lancaster City Park from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It will include a fine arts and crafts exhibition and sale, a booth supplying wildflower viewing maps and information, various events for children, live entertainment and the annual Easter egg hunt. And at 30-minute intervals, The Poppy Express will bus visitors to the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve for a close-up view of the festival’s star.

Lancaster is about an hour’s drive northeast of Los Angeles in the heart of the Antelope Valley, where early pathfinders discovered natural springs, desolate stretches of sand occasionally interrupted by Joshua trees, rocky buttes, lakes and streams. The city was established in the last quarter of the 19th Century when it became the supply depot and railhead for work crews on the Southern Pacific Railroad. It has continued to grow, and every spring it serves as the gateway to some of the state’s most beautiful wildflower displays.

The Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, a 1,700-acre state park 15 miles west of Lancaster, has about 30,000 visitors each spring. The reserve can be reached by going west on Avenue I from the Antelope Valley freeway or the city of Lancaster, or by taking Lake Hughes Road from Interstate 5 north to Avenue I.

Located on the western edge of the High Mojave Desert, the reserve is dedicated to the protection and viewing of the vibrant orange poppy that is California’s state flower. But it also is home to the deep purple lupine, the dainty multicolored davy gilia and the daisy-like white tidytips, which join with the poppy to offer a patchwork quilt of astounding color.

The park’s elevation reaches 3,000 feet at the Antelope Butte Vista Point. There are shaded picnic areas and seven miles of hiking trails--some paved to allow handicap access into the poppy fields. The Visitor’s Center is built into a hillside with a southern exposure and derives some of its energy from a windmill.

The center is open during the wildflower season only--this year it will stay open through May--from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. There is a $5 charge per car, but for those interested in the center’s interpretive panels, pamphlets, gifts and books, plenty can be seen for free from the main roads and the numerous dirt tracks that cut across the poppy fields themselves.

Between Lancaster and the Poppy Reserve on Avenue I, an interesting assortment of old farm equipment sits in the middle of a luxurious poppy field. Children and adults alike may climb over the equipment as friends and relatives take photographs. And there is no shortage of places to turn off the main road for a picnic or a moment’s peaceful contemplation of the desert’s distinct beauty.

For more information about the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, call (805) 724-1180. For more information concerning the California Poppy Festival, call (805) 723-6250.