Q&A: Could Colorado be in store for a wildflower super bloom this summer?

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Stacy Nick
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While California’s wildflower explosion has been making headlines for the past month, Colorado State University Assistant Professor of Horticulture Jennifer Bousselot says Colorado’s own super bloom season is just beginning to sprout. 

Bousselot —whose research into “green roofs” has led her to cultivate a host of rooftop gardens, including one featuring wildflowers, atop the CSU Spur campus’s buildings — discussed the factors that could make for a spectacular wildflower peeping season and how flower enthusiasts can capture a little of that same spectacle at home.

SOURCE: We’re hearing a lot of buzz about the wildflower super blooms in California and Arizona. What can we expect in Colorado? Will we see anything even close to that kind of scale?

Bousselot: We hope so, but it’s really challenging to predict. It’s like predicting the weather, but we do have all the main ingredients to have an incredible wildflower season this year. 

We have a much shorter growing season, so it’s going to be a little longer before we know for sure, but we’re above 100% snowpack. That’s really the first “ingredient” to a great season. But other weather conditions such as low temperatures and the consistency of moisture over time are also important parts to the recipe for a super bloom. Colorado doesn’t have all the same types of species as California, so we’re probably not going to see it at that same scale. But I think we’re going to see a tremendous wildflower season for Colorado standards.

What types of wildflowers do you think we’ll see the most of this season?

I think we’ll see a lot of columbines, a lot of yellow daisies, blanket flower and coreopsis and mule’s ears, lupines, paintbrushes and monument plants.

When will be the best time for “wildflower peeping,” and where will the best show be?

That’s really dependent on elevation. It will be the next few weeks for the Front Range below the foothills, and then it progresses week by week as you go up in elevation. The peak for the high country, where you’ll likely see the biggest bloom, will be mid-to-late July. But we’ll actually see a surprising amount of flowers along the Front Range this year just because we’ve had such consistent moisture. 

The best way to find out where the local blooms are is on social media, especially the Colorado Native Plant Society group. So, just keep an eye on social media for those folks that are really into plants, and you’ll start to see where the best blooms are happening.

And for the folks who don’t necessarily want to hike to their wildflowers, I hear that the CSU Spur campus has quite a beautiful rooftop right now.

We do! We have a sensational rooftop on the Terra building at CSU Spur, where people can see wildflowers all season. We’ve specifically selected different species so that they would bloom from May through October. And right now, we have them blooming much earlier than you would typically see on the ground. We have Indian paintbrush, coreopsis, blue flax. Our white tufted evening primrose has just begun opening and we’re about to get some blanket flowers to bloom.

For folks who want to plant wildflowers in their own yards, what tips would you give?

Honestly, the best way is just to buy plants from your local nursery and ask for natives. Ask for plants like penstemon, their common name is beardtongue, red birds in a tree, and blanket flower. They have some of the longer blooming seasons and are well adapted to our dry conditions. Native geraniums and prairie smoke are also absolutely amazing. Most of our long flowering natives like full sun; give them water to get them started in the first year and you’ll enjoy blooms for a long time.

About Jennifer Bousselot

Jennifer Bousselot is an assistant professor of horticulture for the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture in the College of Agricultural Sciences. Bousselot’s research focuses primarily on the area of green roofs, particularly plant species, substrates, interactions with pollinators and moisture deficit conditions, as well as native plants for use in the green industry and local foods.