Yes, you’ve been seeing and hearing about gorgeous eruptions of wildflowers, thanks to the exceptional moisture Colorado has received this year, but it sounds like the best is yet to come.
Maggie Gaddis, executive director of the Colorado Native Plant Society, says peak wildflower viewing along the Front Range and in the high country has not arrived, and will be later than usual, for different reasons.
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“A lot of the rain that fell in town was snow in the mountains, so everything’s late in the high country,” said Gaddis, who lives in Colorado Springs. “Pikes Peak has more snow on it now than it’s had all winter. We were already at like 124% snowpack before we had these intense spring rains.”
Front Range wildflowers and gardens have benefitted from all that rain, of course, but Gaddis says flowering has been delayed because we’ve had so many overcast days.
“If you look at all the plants in people’s gardens, they’re taller than they normally are,” Gaddis said. “They’re greener, but they’re not flowering faster than they normally do, given the water, because there’s been no sun. Down here, everything is long and leggy, just getting used to some sun.”
Gaddis said Front Range gardeners may see their late season plants flowering simultaneously with their early season plants.
“I’ve already got asters that are blooming with my penstemons, and that normally does not happen,” Gaddis said. “The penstemons bloom in June and the asters (normally) don’t bloom until August or September. So potentially those asters will bloom again, if I cut them back, but it’s like all the plants got on the same time schedule.”
Gaddis guesses peak flowering may begin in a couple of weeks. And, because of the drought that preceded this year’s above normal precipitation, wildflower lovers should keep their eyes out for some unusual species.
“We’re seeing a lot of weird plants that we don’t normally see,” Gaddis said. “There’s an active seed bank (in the ground) all the time. Those seeds are sleeping until the moisture is right. This year the moisture is right for a lot of interesting plants. So when it does bloom, I expect to see a lot of things that are rare.”
For those who want to go on wildflower hikes with some expert interpretation, each of the seven regional chapters of the Colorado Native Plant Society conducts frequent botany hikes, at least once a month. For another source of information, she recommends a free app called iNaturalist, a crowd-sourced information platform that allows people to benefit from the observations of others.
“There’s millions of people on the platform,” Gaddis said. “You can look at the map, isolate a geography, click on it and view all of the observations — all the plants that other people photographed recently. That’s a great way to know before you hit the trail if the season is going in that place yet.”
A free native plant swap will be held Saturday from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. at Earthlinks, 2746 W. 13th Ave. in Denver.
