IF YOU CARRY A LUCKY SHIRT BUTTON... into every meeting presentation you have to give, and you keep a lucky pebble in your glovebox, and you always have a lucky coin bouncing around the bottom of your purse, there is a chance that you have a talisman, somewhere, that, at least in your heart and your hopes, influences the fate of our seasonal wildflowers around Southern California. Whether that's a photo of a poppy on your fridge, or a sketch you made while standing near a glorious field brimming with poppies, matters not: Your lucky item is out and prominently displayed, each and every spring. And the bloom in 2018 definitely could use all of the talismans out there it can possibly get, for a drier, warmer start to winter meant very little poppy action when the visitor center at the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve opened for the season on March 1. Some other types of foliage appeared, here and there, but all eyes are still scanning for some orange, that can't-miss-it hue that is strikingly synonymous with our state flower.
AN UPDATE IS UP, on the reserve's Facebook page, as of Monday, March 26, and it says that "... we are beginning to see a few scattered poppies and gold fields alongside the Poppy Trail South Loop." Elsewhere? Fiddleneck continues to make a showing, and "fragrant" grape soda lupines, too. As for what the poppy forecast holds? Be at the ready for a "small to moderate poppy bloom in about another week or two if the nice weather holds and if we do not get too much frost or heat," states the update. Best break out those lucky buttons and coins and pebbles, flower-loving Southern Californians, and make a few poppy-bright wishes for an early April poppy show of good size. Of course, weather, sunshine, and a host of other science-cool factors are the basis of how well the poppies pop, so may that all work out well in the immediate future.
