Sorry, LA! The Poppy Superbloom Is Not Happening This Year. Here's Why

Major storms earlier this year brought a considerable amount of rain to Southern California, temporarily ending our drought and fueling hopes for a radiant wildflower season.

One of the go-to spots for the rare feat, the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, had been tempering expectations about a spectacular bloom. As we head toward late April, park officials are confirming that while there are patches of poppies around, that "postcard image" of a sea of orange blooms just isn't what nature has in store for the 1,800-acre reserve this year.

"There's poppies in the park for sure," said Callista Turner, a state park interpreter working at the Antelope Valley reserve. "But it's not like we're talking about [an extraordinary] bloom."

All bets are off with climate change

Turner said parks officials use data from years past to come up with an educated guess on the scale of each season's blooms. But with climate change, those calls are becoming harder and harder to make — particularly because of the wild swings it's caused in California's weather.

"California is never [a state with] an average rainfall. It's always either above that or below that significantly — almost like a heartbeat. But when you start getting a beat that has a really high spike and then a really low trough, it causes like a lot of stress," said Turner.

Turner cited the severe drought the state endured between 2019 and 2022, only to follow with the record rainfall in the last two years, as examples. That volatility has meant greater uncertainty.

"We're making predictions, but we're making it off of data that is starting to show how it's becoming obsolete with these new climate changes," Turner said. "It was never easy to predict, and now it's just becoming increasingly more difficult."

While a wet winter in 2023 had made for a respectable poppy bloom, the same cannot be said of this season.

"In an environment like the Poppy Reserve, which is right on the edge of the Mojave Desert, many of the plants that are native are adapted to desert climate," said Turner. When there's extra water, "that's when the non-natives that aren't as adapted kind of capitalize on that and crowd out everything."

The California poppies.

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Frederic J. Brown

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AFP via Getty Images

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Which is precisely what has happened this year, where non-native grasses have edged out the poppies because of record back-to-back year rain.

"With the grasses, last year they produced a ton of seed, and so this year we see those seeds germinating," Turner said. "It does create these kind of like lush grassy fields, but that's not why people come to the poppy reserve. They want the poppies."

Spectacular poppy blooms are actually quite rare

But those incredible displays where flowers carpet a whole valley are more the exception than the rule.

The Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve in mid-April 2024.

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Courtesy Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve

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"I would say in 10 years we maybe get, you know, one, two, three, years where we have really nice, exceptional blooms," Turner said, adding that while 2023 wasn't a bad year, the truly incredible years in recent memory were in 2019 and again in 2020.

Plenty of other reasons to visit

Still, Turner said there are plenty of other flowers that are in bloom.

This is not the year for a poppy superbloom, but the goldfields are blooming currently at the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve.

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Courtesy Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve

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"As of right now, there's still big chunks of goldfields that are blooming and we have this beautiful purple owl's clover, that is making this really eye popping contrast," she said, adding that some cream cups and bush lupins are also starting to bloom.

If you are down to help, members of the public are invited this weekend and on Earth Day on Monday to the reserve to learn more about the park and to help weed out the non-native mustards, which produce a compound that may inhibit the germination of other plants.

All that is to say, there are plenty of things to see and do until the next ultra-bloom — whenever that is.

"If I could tell people when the poppy peak is or what the season's going to be like, I would absolutely," Turner said. "I love our public visitors. I want them to come and have a great experience. Unfortunately, it is a natural reserve, which is subject to the climate that we have and the weather as it comes through."