00146_s_11agqaxsjg0458Just in case you haven’t heard there is a ‘super-bloom’ for wildflowers going on right now out in our western deserts. It is due to heavy El Nino rains this last fall and the reports I have seen are that there are flowers in places that haven’t seen flowers in a decade. Death Valley National Park has been mentioned frequently as has Joshua Tree and the entire Mohave Desert area.

This bloom will not be short lived. Right now the flowers are blooming in the lowest elevations but as the days click past the flowers will start to bloom in ever higher elevations. This will extend the ‘super-bloom’ for weeks. I don’t know the status of the bloom in Texas but I have also heard that the Sonoran desert in Arizona- the Tucson-Phoenix area, etc- is just starting and is also expected to be very good.

Looking farther into the future I wouldn’t be surprised if we got great blooms in the Rockies and northern plains this summer. For you Midwesterners keep an eye out on your local prairie. You may have a spectacular late Summer flowerfest.