California Poppy a Late Bloomer

Showers may turn to flowers in rhyme, but not in real life this season at the California Poppy Reserve in the Antelope Valley. The persnickety poppies, famous for their orange bloom and capricious nature, opted out of their annual fete in the hills west of Lancaster--victims, it seems, of a winter warmer and drier than they prefer.

A few recent visitors to the reserve expressed disappointment at the poppies’ poor showing. But the very unpredictability of the poppy--good blooms occur about once every six years--is what makes its good years so spectacular. It’s also part of what makes the poppy such a perfect flower for such an unpredictable state. When it’s ready for its close-up, it lets us know in bursts of orange so vivid that the hills look almost martian.

Nature’s timing and rhythms, however inconvenient for the rest of us, move at their own perfect pace. They surprise us and disappoint us. The poppies have less than two months left in their season, less than two months to get the five extra inches of rain they need for a banner showing. Who knows? Nature may surprise us still.