Who needs a florist?

The drought has dragged on so long that we’ve forgotten how green California can get. Green enough this winter, in fact, to stop traffic along Central Coast mountains. Kevin Sullivan idled on his bike on a recent Saturday, feet planted on the wide westbound shoulder of Highway 46 near Cambria. Ahead, grassy hills billowed toward the ocean and Morro Rock. He lifted his sunglasses off his sweaty nose. “Whoa, they’re like lime Jell-O,” said Sullivan, a teacher from Monterey. “They’re almost glossy.” The coastal vegetation always perks up in wet years, but this season it’s a particularly chipper hue -- the color of golf course fairways -- from deep soakings in December and January. Wildflowers are blooming early in meadows, most notably along Figueroa Mountain Road off Highway 154 near Buellton in the Los Padres National Forest’s Santa Lucia Ranger District. Among the species reported here are lupine, California poppies, tidy tips, hummingbird sage and owl’s clover. For the latest news on conditions in the Figueroa Mountain area, shown below in a previous bloom boom, call the ranger station at (805) 925-9538. For information about trails in Los Padres National Forest, which stretches from Big Sur to the western edge of Los Angeles County, check out www.fs.fed.us/r5/lospadres/ or call (805) 968-6640.

-- Pamm Higgins