Saw some wildflowers while on vacation

There were blankets of them in Joshua Tree National Park.

Any ideas of what they are?

These smelled wonderful.

And this was my favorite, and the best picture I have.

First of all: how beautiful!!!!
My guesses follow :-)
Your second picture looks like Lupine to me. Possibly Desert or Arizona Lupine
#3 Hairy Sand Verbena, Abronia villosa http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/73442/ it does grow mat-like in Joshua Tree but here I only see single plants
#4 Canterbury Bells - Phacelia campanularia http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/1285/

Never been to Joshua Tree

Thanks angele, yes they were beautiful, as was the whole park. And the Canterbury Bells look like I could grow them in my zone 6 garden. Now I wish I had more close ups - it was windy, so tough to get a clear picture.

It must have been an incredible sight to see in person. Your pictures make me want to go there. You picked the exact right time to visit!

Lovely flowers and pictures Debilu!!
Josephine.

That was great. We're going to Joshua Tree for our spring vacation! I guess we will miss those wild flowers but maybe there will be more or others higher up. We shall see. Love the photo of the Phacelia campanularia. I can see where campanula might have come from.

Thanks all. It was a nice time. Roybird, I have more pics of the park if you are interested, but you might rather wait to see it all first.

I can't decide! I want to see more of your great pictures and I want to see it myself. I'm being difficult. l.o.l. If you post them I'll sure take a look. It may be different by now anyway!

When are you going?

A week from friday we will start out. Also visiting my S.I.L. in Laughlin. We will probably get to Joshua Tree right after Easter. I hope it won't be too crowded. If it is, we'll go up to Death Valley. We also want to see the Salton Sea. When did you go? Did you camp?

We were there the weekend of March 1st +2nd. No camping. We also did Bryce and Zion in Utah.

Sounds like a good trip. We will camp some of the time depending on weather. I bet we get some heat. Sorry to have missed those wild flowers but who knows what we'll find. As long as it's not rattle snakes.

Have a fun trip!

Thanks, Debilu! It's so funny, when I was a child my best friend was nicknamed Debbilu. But, she now lives in Missouri. My name is Penny and I'm sure we'll meet again. This is a really nice forum.

It is a great forum, and my mom gave me my nickname!

Hey debilu,
have you looked at the park's website?
http://www.nps.gov/archive/jotr/activities/blooms/update/update.html
Most of the southwest parks are pretty good about keeping their wildflower reports up to date. I'm not sure if parks in other regions have similar webpages.


This message was edited Mar 21, 2008 8:02 AM

OMG Katlian, how perfect is that!! Thank you so much!! Now I'll have to look into other parks websites.
Thank you.

You're welcome. When we went to Death Valley a couple of years ago we bought the little brochure with photos of the local flowers. It was sure easier to haul around than the Jepson Manual (Plants of California, at least two inches thick and weighs a ton).

Good vacation tip, Katlian. Thanx.

Beautiful photos, how lucky to be there at the right time to see those! If you have your photos on flickr or photobucket, I am sure we would all love to see them. ; )

Katlian, that is a great link, actually I was just going to look for it. They are usually right on with updates.

It was gorgeous to see all those flowers, especially since my garden hasn't started yet.
I posted a thread in NE, and I'll look for more wild flower pics. Glad you enjoyed them.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/821598/

I posted the best wild flower pics, but here is another view.

Hi Debilu. Just returned from Joshua Tree night before last. Enjoyed your link. Once I get some photos on the computer will post some on this forum or in Rocky Mountain gardening. We had a great time.

Great, glad you had a good time, looking forward to some pics. If you post on Rocky Mountain send me a link!!