Something beautiful and unusual is happening in the southern part of the state this summer. Thanks to above-average moisture that has set the stage for an epic wildflower season there and elsewhere in the state, dazzling cactus blooms are erupting with seldom-seen abundance.
“This year the yuccas flowered like I really have never seen them,” said Alex Crochet, horticulturist for the city of Colorado Springs. “Now the cactus are following suit. It’s very evident that this rain was really great for these plants to get them started. Now, down here, we have had 90-degree days back to back, and that heat is just making these really hot-loving plants bloom like crazy.”
One of the places where this is unfolding spectacularly is the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.
“The Garden of the Gods is especially rich in flowering shrubs and flowering cacti,” Crochet said. “You’ll find the same type of opuntia (prickly pear cactus) have 10 different variations in color, ranging from sunset orange to a buttery yellow to pink. It’s really cool to see all of these different flowers en masse. You’ll see a lot of really good cacti there.”
Also notable is the blooming cholla cactus, which proliferates south of Colorado Springs in Pueblo County. Maggie Gaddis, executive director of the Colorado Native Plant Society, found them in all their glory on a recent trip to the Tunnel Drive trail near Cañon City.
“The cholla are roughly four to five feet tall, and each specimen has at least 200 blooms,” Gaddis said. “They are these magenta flowers, and it’s super gorgeous.”
Evidently the local bee population is enjoying the exceptional cacti bloom, too.
“I see the majority of pollinators in those cacti flowers,” Crochet said. “There’s something about all those little stamens in those flowers, the nectar must be just so great to our native bees, but I am seeing tons of pollinators.”
Gaddis recently went on a bike ride from Golden to Morrison and was stunned by what she saw along the way.
“There were just endless penstemons and blue flax,” Gaddis said. “I recall there being very robust hairy golden aster, which is a yellow flower. That’s usually a plant that’s triggered by the monsoon (in midsummer), and the spring-fed blooms are still happening. It’s very weird that we have our asters and our goldenrods and our rabbitbrush starting to bud at the same time as our spring ephemerals. I was just blown away. It was really a sea of purple. Both the blue flax and the penstemons are purple, and the hairy golden aster is yellow.”
Crochet is predicting an “incredible” season for sunflowers across Colorado.
“I am seeing three- to four-foot sunflowers everywhere, and they’re not blooming yet,” Crochet said. “The sunflowers this year may rival the best years I can ever think of, as far as blooms are concerned.”
While much of the alpine vegetation zone remains under snow, wildflower blooms are going off in the montane zone which is situated at 8,000 feet to 10,000 feet in elevation. The Betty Ford Alpine Gardens in Vail, at 8,200 feet, seems to be at its peak.
“We’re having an absolutely fantastic bloom,” said education director Nanette Kuich. “Everything is blooming, and everything seems to be very compressed because we had such a cool, rainy spring. Generally, the flowers spread themselves out more over the season, but because of the cool spring, everything is just abundant and blooming very close together. It’s unbelievable right now.”
Based on a recent report from Emily Griffoul, a colleague who is a conservation scientist for the Betty Ford gardens, Kuich said any place that isn’t still under snow is blooming.
“She’s seen more abundant flowers in some species than she’s ever seen,” Kuich said. “I think it is the perfect time to go hiking.”
Crochet highlighted the importance of staying on existing trails while going on wildflower hikes.
“With the volume of flowers we have, it really tempts people to go off trail and stomp around,” Crochet said. “A lot of these plants that we have are really tiny. Some of these ball cactus start out at the size of an eraser on a pencil. So as tempting as it may be to go off trail a little bit to look at the flowers, it would be really important to encourage people to stay on trail, and respect the flowers that are blooming, so we don’t crush them. And, to not pull flowers off of things, because our pollinators are relying on that.”
