Posted on 04/07/2003 6:49:55 PM PDT by BenLurkin
By all accounts, this year's crop of poppies, the state flower, has been one of the most bountiful in recent memory, although they were a bit shy with the weekend's blustery and cloudy weather.
On Sunday, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the naming of the poppy as the state flower, about 100 members of the community took the long and winding drive out to the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve to mark the occasion.
"We couldn't have asked for a better poppy season," keynote speaker Assemblywoman Sharon Runner said, adding she is happy to be involved with the park "so that my children and grandchildren can enjoy it as well."
She said she planned to present an Assembly bill this week to honor the state flower and mentioned $200,000 that her husband, former Assemblyman George Runner, had managed to nail down on behalf of the park.
The money is to be used to build restrooms for visitors.
Although the poppies have sprouted in abundance in all parts of the Antelope Valley, the vibrant petals were shut tight Sunday morning to protect themselves from the wind and the cold.
Despite the poppies' being closed, those who braved the wind and cold were awed by the beauty of the reserve and surrounding hills.
"It's gorgeous, a little windy and cold, but gorgeous," said Cub Pack Leader Georgette Dame of Troop 641 from Quartz Hill, which took part in the ceremony.
She said this was the first time she went to the reserve. "It's strange that you live here for so long and you never see anything like this," Dame said.
Those who came to the ceremony huddled in the Jane S. Pinheiro Interpretive Center to hear the speakers. Inside, visitors could get artists' views of the poppy, with stained glass poppies on the windows and paintings of the flower lining the walls.
However, the poppies blanketing the fields outshone the art hands down.
"It's fantastic," said Kent Fowler, a Sylmar man who volunteers at a state park in Malibu. "It's beautiful. I knew that the desert had a lot of life: I was out here 10 years ago. But for my kids, this is the first time that they've seen it."
The reserve, at 15101 West Lancaster Road, covers more than 1,000 acres of undisturbed hills dedicated by the state in 1976.
The blossoms appeared on cue in mid-March after a particularly rainy pre-season.
While it is illegal to pick the flowers, each of which usually produces from four to eight petals, people are invited to walk among them and photograph the brightest blossoms the desert has to offer.
The park has dirt paths and a parking lot designed to draw in tourists and allow them into the poppies' natural habitat without trampling them.
The reserve is open daily, sunrise to sunset, throughout the year. The visitors center is open daily from mid-March to mid-May."It's very, very impressive," said Veronique Haour, a Los Angeles resident originally from France. "I heard that it was beautiful, but I didn't think it could be this lovely - spectacular."
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