In high country, spring showers mean summer flowers

BY ROBERT TANN SUMMIT DAILY NEWS

While Colorado’s Front Range is seeing the peak of wild ower bloom, the High Country is patiently waiting for its own.

A cold, wet winter and spring de ned by above-average snow and rainfall is likely to delay peak bloom by as much as two weeks. But it also means this summer will see even more color than last.

“It’s de nitely going to be, it already is, a very, very good wildower year,” said Tyler Johnson, a U.S. Forest Service botanist for the Rocky Mountain region.

While expeditions in the High Country are likely to reveal earlyseason blooms, including lupines and yarrows, plants such as columbines, the iconic state ower, as well as paintbrushes and goldenrods are still dormant.

e region usually sees its wildower season begin to peak around the Fourth of July weekend, when nightly temperatures tend to hover around 50 degrees. In order to avoid devastating summer frosts, wildowers wait until temperatures are safe before reproducing, or owering, and dispersing seeds.

A slew of environmental factors can have sway over when and where owers can be seen, but nighttime temperature is “one of the strongest controls on where plants grow and how happy they are,” Johnson said.

According to National Weather Service meteorologist Bernie Meier, nightly temperatures in the central mountain region, which includes Summit and Eagle counties, have been as low as 30 degrees recently. Over the next week, those temperatures are expected to be in the 40s, but Meier added, “We’re not seeing that warmth any time soon, at least not in the next seven to 10 days.” Monsoon season, which generally brings consistent rainfall beginning at’s not to say the state isn’t experiencing warmth. On the Western Slope where elevations are lower, nighttime temperatures in Grand Junction have reached 60 degrees. Still, that’s slightly below normal for this time of year, Meier said.

Arizona suggest heavy precipitation will arrive before the month’s end, but without the added moisture, temperatures are likely to remain cooler.

“As the summer progresses, the slopes will bloom rst, in general,” Johnson said.

Johnson said he expects the High Country’s peak bloom to begin in one to two weeks. And while the snow and rain of the past months will help make a more vibrant scene, it’s the negative factors that can a ect a wild ower season’s outcome more than the positives.

Drought, for example, can be a huge determinant of how well a

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