California's super bloom is the best in years, so vibrant it can be seen from space
California may never have seen a super bloom like this before. Although it’s been only two years since the last one, locals say this one is even better.
In recent weeks, flowers have exploded in parts of Central and Southern California and are advancing north.
In some places, it’s been termed the “super bloom apocalypse.”
Interstates have become parking lots, mountain canyons have had to be closed, flower chasers have been found stuck in the mud by helicopters, and folks have tumbled down hillsides trying to get the perfect shot.
A super bloom is simply an outbreak of flowers that exceeds the norm. They tend to occur about once a decade on average in California, but this is the second in three years. The last one followed record precipitation in the winter of 2016-17.
Abundant rain and mountain snow are again responsible for this year’s bloom. The past winter ranked 47th-wettest on record in California. This followed a rather dry start to winter and a fall full of wildfires.
Great photos at the link
= new reply since forum marked as read
California poppies are even more silky-exquisite up close. Just realized I have to plant some seed this spring. 
there are so many butterflies that when he goes out in the car, he almost always has several smash themselves into the windshield!
It will take years for humans recover from the wildfires that swept through California in 2018, but nature is much more resilient. In fact, the wildfires are a key factor in a beautiful phenomenon in the spring: a super bloom of wildflowers.
"It's a miracle of nature," Pepperdine University biology professor Stephen Davis told Curbed. "We call it the rejuvenation of the chaparral."
What makes a super bloom so super?
A super bloom, as its name implies, is an incredibly productive wildflower season. Poppies, popcorn flowers, purple lupins and others create an explosion of color in what are typically desert landscapes. Southern California experienced one of these super blooms in 2017, and it was so intense that you could actually see the effects from space.
But keep in mind that super blooms are rare. Prior to the 2017 event, there was one in 2009 and another in 1999. They're rare because they require certain conditions for the wildflowers to bloom in such abundance.
The wildfires provide the first condition. According to Curbed, the fires provide a cue of sorts for seeds in the ground that the sprouting time is neigh. With plant life burned away, there's less competition for sunlight, something the wildflowers are keen for. The heat from the fire will melt their waxy seed coats, and this allows oxygen and water to seep in and germinate the seed.
And it drives me crazy. No pun intended.
I remember what it was like before they put that freeway in where I live. It was so peaceful, and no fires. Every fire we have had has started on the edge of that freeway. 
We need less noise, not more. The military helicopters use the freeway as a guide point. So we have constant military presence in that way. Camp Pendleton is constantly doing what I call 'bombs bursting in air,' which is training with howitzers. It starts at 6 a.m. and goes until midnight. Did I mention it used to be a peaceful canyon? 
...but no blooms yet. I'll collect some of the seedpods later on, but really they do such a good job of broadcasting their own seed. There's blue lupine in in the empty lot across the street, almost hidden in the tall weeds, and I'll collect some of their seed pods later on as well. What I really want is the deep purple lupine, if I can find it.
The little hills in front of our house have swathes of yellow wild mustard that look like sun breaking through clouds.
NOTE: I do not collect seed from wild spaces, as I know that is severely frowned upon. Luckily, the empty lot is owned by someone who has been trying to sell it for years. I'll be looking for purple lupine seeds at the nursery. My poppy seeds all came from a friend who is an intensive gardener.
And I'm in a canyon, the freeway goes right through it, so the noise is amplified. And on a really bad day, the gas fumes get trapped in the canyon.
I'm not kidding, it was Heaven to live here years ago before they put that stupid thing in. I curse it everyday. At night, before the freeway went in, you could hear every cricket, every frog, every bird in the trees, it was wonderful.
You can still hear the coyotes though. They can howl over the freeway really well!
