This month's mascot is the Ocotillo. It is a gorgeous plant (very like a cactus) but only for a season. In the spring, if there was enough rain, the Ocotillo blooms. But blooms isn't enough of a word. It explodes - turning from a collection of sticks to green and red bonanza.
Mainly around the low desert from Palm Springs - through Anza-Borrego: the heaven of Ocotoillo - down to Baja California. It is gorgeous.
The bloom time varies, so the very best way to see it is to dry CA - 22 from Warner Springs to Borrego Springs in the spring.
You see the road winds down a mountain on the desert side that enables the Ocotillo to bloom at different elevations at different times. So you get your best chance to see a natural bloom somewhere.
Now I hear you say, "WTF, Scott? Why the Ocotillo?" Because it looks dead, but it isn't. It is resilient and will pop back. Hell, at a little nursery in Morongo they had stacks of it that look like firewood. But you plug it in the ground in December. Water it a little and poof - it blooms in March. March is my birthday month and I am always charmed by their return to life.
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| Dormant - not dead |
