It’s officially spring! For Southern California, “winter showers bring spring flowers” usually means millions of California poppies turn the hills and deserts orange. Mid-March is peak season for the Golden State flower, but this year, there won’t be the “superbloom” phenomenon like in the past.
KCRW’s Kelsey Ngante explains why the poppies aren’t popping — and maybe that’s for the best
Why are poppies such a big deal here in SoCal?
The easy answer is that they’re beautiful! Typically, poppy blooms mean millions of gold and orange flowers covering the hills and grasslands of Southern California. We’ve got some state parks with big poppy populations, most notably the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve up in Lancaster.
Callista Turner works at the Poppy Reserve, and she says the poppy superblooms are worth the wait every year.
“In a really big poppy year, you'll come over a hillside up from, say, Los Angeles, through one of the canyons, and you'll crest the hill,” explains Turner. “From miles away, the reflection of the sun hitting those orange petals creates this incredibly, almost violent orange glow that you have to use sunglasses to look at.”
On top of that, they’re only in season this time of year. So imagine how unique they have to be to survive such a short lifespan and limited water.
The cherry on top is that they’re super Instagram-able. It’s great for girls like me who like to take pictures and match outfits with flowers.
Why do state park and city employees have a love/hate relationship with superbloom tourism?
In 2023, Lake Elsinore held a poppy press conference to address the incoming flood of tourists for bloom seasons. Thousands of people visited, clogging up roadways and trailheads to see the poppies. Former Lake Elsinore Mayor Natasha Johnson explained that the town was overwhelmed.
“Tens of thousands of people, as many as 100,000 in a weekend, people of Disneyland-size crowds were seeking to experience nature. They trampled the very habitat that they placed so high in regard and sought to enjoy,” says Johnson.
That year, Lake Elsinore announced a zero-tolerance policy on tourists at the poppy-heavy Walker Canyon trail. The city closed the trail and roads leading up to the trail and handed out citations to visitors.
The primary concern: safety. Some of these towns don’t have the infrastructure to support over 100,000 people visiting a couple miles of trailheads in a day. The increased traffic also led to a lot more accidents. People were getting hurt.
Plus, you’d be surprised at the lengths people go to get selfies. At the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, people often break from trails to get pictures in the field. Unfortunately, they do have rattlesnakes. One park interpreter says the only people who’ve gotten rattlesnake bites were those who went off-trails — so keep that in mind.
Poppies are also in jeopardy. When thousands of people walk across the ground, it compacts the soil. A trampled path can turn barren by the next year. It’s illegal to pick poppies at the Poppy Reserve, but people do it anyway. When people pick the poppies, they die within seconds. It also prevents the flower from spreading its seeds. So picking one poppy can prevent hundreds of future poppies from growing.
However, since there won’t be a superbloom this year, none of that is much of a problem.
Why so few poppies now?
There just wasn’t enough rain to support plant growth. This year’s been one of the driest winters California had in the past century. If you take a look at the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve’s live cam right now, it’s very bare.
Will there be more later?
Poppies are annual flowers. That means they live their entire lives in a three-month period from germination to death. They can’t pop up later if they’re not germinating right now.
It’s also not a one-to-one of more rain equals more poppies. They do need at least six inches of rain, but in previous wet years with 14 or more inches of rain, invasive plants end up growing instead. Those invasive plants take over where the poppy blooms would’ve been.
The California poppy can only succeed in that Goldilocks amount of rain and time of year.
Even though there won’t be a superbloom this year, we’re set up for better years to come. Why? Because fewer tourists means fewer people trampling poppy paths. That gives the soil a chance to recover. Several dry years in a row also means invasive plants can’t flourish either. It’s like a big reset button. It primes the environment for an optimal bloom season the next time we have a wet winter.
Even though there aren't a lot of poppies, there are still plenty of other flowers and miles of trailheads to explore. Go outside and enjoy some springtime.