Today's Los Angeles Times has a full-page spread in their Outdoors section about the expected great flower bloom this spring in the California (Arizona, Baja California) deserts, including a map of the four main desert parks and write-ups of a few of the flowers that they expect to see, including Hesperocallis undulata. There is even a link to a photo of it in flower on the page given below. At the end of this article they give phone numbers and URLs for the bloom information of each of the 4 parks, as well as the phone number and URL of the flower hotline of the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers and Native Plants, which grows and sells seeds and plants of California natives. Uli and Jane (and any others interested) may want to check those out. --Lee Poulsen Pasadena area, California, USDA Zone 9-10 http://www.latimes.com/features/outdoors/la-os-/ wildflowers1mar01,0,2946111.story?coll=la-home-outdoors Floral fireworks This is the year for wildflower stalking. So let David Lukas take you into the brief life and times of some of the more colorful desert natives -- before they vanish. By David Lukas Special to The Times March 1, 2005 The process is easy: just add water and the deserts of Southern California burst into color. During the El Niño year of 1998, for instance, a series of rainstorms transformed a 40-mile stretch of Interstate 40 between Barstow and Needles into a carpet of gold, and while this year's flowers can still be jeopardized by heavy rains or a sudden heat wave, 2005 promises to be a phenomenal year. Already wildflower enthusiasts are making plans to follow the bloom from the lower elevations — Anza-Borrego, Joshua Tree and portions of Death Valley — in March to the higher elevations — the Mojave Preserve — in April and May. Most of the flowers below, and many others, will be found in all four regions, and the trail recommendations cover just a sliver of territory. No guide can do justice to such extravagance, but the point is simple: Spring passes swiftly, and while desert plants bloom intensely, they also bloom fleetingly. Catching the desert bloom For more information about desert parks, contact: Death Valley National Park (760) 786-3200 or http://www.nps.gov/deva/FrameSet-Wildflower.htm Joshua Tree National Park (760) 367-5500 or http://nps.gov/jotr/activities/… Mojave National Preserve (760) 733-4040 or http://www.nps.gov/moja/mojaanwf.htm Anza-Borrego Desert State Park (760) 767-5311 or http://anzaborrego.statepark.org/wildflowers.html/ The Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers and Native Plants in Sunland maintains a wildflower hotline from March through May at (818) 768-3533 or http://www.theodorepayne.org/. Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times