Poppies look to sun for bloom boost

By JENNIFER SANTOS
Valley Press Staff Writer

Dozens of visitors from all over the state and the country came to catch a close-up of the California Poppy on Sunday. This weekend, the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserves's visitor center opened for the spring wild flower season.

But blooming poppies were few and far between.

"It's still too early to predict how good the poppy season will be this year, said Marsha Neill, a Lancaster resident and volunteer docent at the reserve for six years. "You never know what you're going to get each year. We need the right amount of rain at the right time."

Neill said she believes February's rain showers have caused a delay in the poppy blooming season. She hopes the rain also doesn't cause non-native grass to grow quickly, which would "choke out the poppies," Neill said.

Neill took Sunday's warmer weather as a positive sign of what's to come. Sunny weather with highs in the 70s is forecast throughout the week. She said she is hoping the poppies start to unfold sometime in the next week or two.

"There's always something blooming all year long; that's the beauty of being out here," said Neill.

This past weekend, Neill said visitors from Texas, Germany, and Korea have stopped by to see the flowers. A few of those visitors expressed their disappointment Sunday that they couldn't see as many flowers as they had hoped, but that didn't keep them off the trails in search of other blooming flowers.

Anne and Bill Rittman, from Ohio, said this was their second visit to the preserve. The first time they came, they said, the poppies weren't in full bloom either.

"It's just so different from where we live," said Rittman.

Rittman and her husband said they had only seen pictures of the fields covered with poppies, but they were eager to see what else was blooming.

Patti Cochran traveled to the preserve for the first time with her young children and her sister from Montebello. Cochran said they had expected there to be more poppies, but her children enjoyed seeing the other flowers and lizards running around.

"It's just really nice to be here. Even though there aren't a lot of poppies, it's good to be out of the city," said Cochran.

Though plentiful winter rains and scattered snow promise a good wildflower crop, relatively cool recent weather means the reserve's 1,760 acres remain mostly gray and green, not gold. Workers say poppy plants are growing on the hills, but they haven't matured enough to bloom yet.

Less-showy wildflowers are in bloom, including slender keel fruit, white forget-me-nots and filaree.

Lupines are just starting to bloom, and goldfields are in bud.

Also evident Sunday were plenty of wild parsley, tiny yellow-orange fiddleneck flowers, lacy phacelia, tiny blue or lavender in color, and goldfields, from the sunflower family. In the distance on various hillsides, one can also see the slender keel fruit plants which are used for echinacea, said Neill.

"In about a week these hills will be covered with yellow from the goldfields," Neill said.

When the winds die down, visitors can also hear singing from the white-crowned sparrow or meadowlark bird. Other desert animals such as ground squirrels, rabbits and the desert spiny lizards are quite common right now.

"We do get snakes but they typically won't come out right now because it's still too cold for them," Neill said.

"If you see one, it probably won't move that much right now because it's getting warm, but you should still keep away from them, "

Visitors trying to beat the windy weather or the heat that is soon to come can visit the Jane S. Pinheiro Interpretive Center.

There, they may purchase souvenirs, learn about the poppy and other wildflowers and see hand-painted portraits of various wildflowers on display, painted by the founder of the center, Jane S. Pinheiro.

California Institute of the Arts students Susanna Battin and Eliot Eidelman of Santa Clarita said the lack of poppies in bloom has just motivated them to revisit the park in a week.

Battin, from Oregon, and Eidelman, from Georgia, said they have never seen anything like this before.

"This will give us more time to learn about the California Poppy by the time we come back," Battin said.

If the season proves well for the poppies, Neill said she anticipates the reserve to be open until Mother's Day.

The reserve will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekends until the wildflowers die off. The reserve's entrance is at 15101 West Lancaster Road, about 15 miles west of the Antelope Valley Freeway. (Get off the freeway at Avenue I, which becomes Lancaster Road.)

Parking fees are $8 per vehicle, or $7 for a vehicle carrying a senior citizen age 62 or over, or $4 for a vehicle with a state Department of Parks and Recreation disabled discount card.

jsantos@avpress.com