Where to Find Desert Blooms
Before long, desert wildflowers will bloom in central and southern Arizona. But, unfortunately, they don’t bloom by the calendar, so it’s impossible to predict when and where you can find them.
The Desert Botanical Garden returns with Wildflower Info Site to provide up-to-date reports on where to go to see spring color. The site is a collaborative effort by 21 parks and gardens and is live during March and April.
What makes wildflowers bloom?
The two most important conditions needed for annual wildflowers are rainfall and an optimal soil temperature. Mass or landscape-wide blooms coincide with fall-winter rains that are wetter and begin earlier than usual. Rainfall most often has to be at least one inch to initiate germination of most annual wildflowers. In addition, it has to rain one inch per month through March.
Germination of spring-blooming annuals occurs when soil temperatures are cooler in the late-fall and winter months. Spectacular flowering is a rare event and may occur only every 10 years. Because rainfall varies from location to location and wildflowers can germinate and grow on less than one inch per month, localized blooms are common every three to four years. This year, scientists at the Garden predict minimal wildflower bloom because of the lack of rainfall.
Blooms at the Garden
The Desert Botanical Garden’s two-acre Harriet K. Maxwell Desert Wildflower Trail opened in 2001 and is dedicated to the beauty and appreciation of desert wildflowers and their pollinators. The horticulture team spent early fall prepping and seeding the trail and late fall and winter irrigating the plantings, and they expect an abundant wildflower bloom during March and April.
Photo by Adam Rodriguez