Super Bloom 2019 Wildflower Tour with Jim Bishop

| August 7, 2020 | 0 Comments

In June the Mission Hills Garden Club met via Zoom.  Jim Bishop, engineer by education, landscaper by choice, and president of many important garden and horticultural groups, showed his magnificent slides from some of the 25 trips he and his partner Scott Borden took to see the spectacular display of wildflowers in San Diego County in 2019.  From the thousands of photos Bishop took, he picked those that best illustrated his tour.

2019 was a Super Bloom year. During the previous August, there was a “freak rainstorm,” a flood.  As a result of it and subsequent, frequent regular rainfall, cool temperatures and no major heat waves, the climate was perfect for Super Bloom, a brilliant display of flowers that may be confined to a single area or spread over a vast area. 2019’s covered a huge portion of California.  “We actually live in a biodiversity hotspot!” Bishop says.  He explained that San Diego County has more varieties of native plants than any other area except Hawaii.

Instead of giving you a rundown of his tour, however, this month I am going to post the tour like an itinerary.  Should we have another rainy year as we had in 2019, you can follow Jim’s tracks and see the flowers for yourself.  The tour begins in February and goes until the end of spring.  It ends with summer because from July on Jim prefers to avoid extreme heat.  This is why the county wildflower trips are confined to late winter and spring.

Below is a reconstructed list of Jim Bishop and Scott Borden’s 2019 Wildflower Super Bloom Tour:

            Location                                             Event

Mission Trails Regional Park              Chocolate lily

Anza Borrego State Park                     Evening Primrose               

Rattlesnake Canyon-Poway                 California Peony

Iron Mountain, Poway                         Ceanothus (CA Lilac)

Scripps Coastal Preserve                     Coast Barrel Cactus   

Cedar Creek Falls to SD River           Chaparral

Eagle Rock Pacific Crest Trail Chinese Houses

Green Valley Falls                               Bob Cat (Mammal)

Garnet Peak                                         California Thistle

Laguna Mountains                              Rocky Mountain Iris

Volcan Mountain                                 Mariposa Lily

Torrey Pines State Reserve                 Deer Weed                                         

Cabrillo National Monument               Agave Shawii             

The next meeting will be on the fourth Thursday of September.  Meanwhile, wear a mask if you

are out of doors; stay six feet from people with whom you do not live with; wash your hands thoroughly and often; and keep them away from your face.

The California Thistle can be found in the spring at Garnet Park.

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About the Author ()

Barbara Strona is a native Californian who grew up in the Mid-West and Los Angeles. She and her architect husband, Carl, came to San Diego in 1968 and have lived in Mission Hills since early 1971. Barbara received a Bachelor of Arts from Scripps College with a major in English, and a minor in Art. She attended UCLA graduate school and received a General Secondary Credential. She taught English in Los Angeles, Pennsylvania, and at Point Loma High School. She has been a Realtor specializing in residential sales since 1984. Her passions include her job, reading, writing, foreign languages and foreign countries, animals (feathered or furry), theatre, and her family: husband, two adult children and two grandsons.
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