SPRING SIGNS POP(PY) UP ALONG DESERT ROADSIDE.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

LANCASTER - California poppies are blooming in scattered clumps around the Antelope Valley, but a relatively dry winter - so far - makes things look grim for the 2002 wildflower season.

But a local authority noted that forecasting the wildflower crop in advance is difficult.

``You can't predict,'' said Milt Stark, author of an Antelope Valley wildflower book and president of the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve's interpretive association.

``Last year we only got 4 3/4 inches (of rain), but it all came at the right time, and we had a great year. This year, whether March is going to produce that, who knows?''

The Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve will open its visitor center on March 23, and Lancaster's 11th annual California Poppy Festival will be April 20 and 21.

The reserve, located around Antelope Buttes 15 miles west of Lancaster, consists of 1,745 acres chosen in the 1970s as California's most consistent poppy-bearing land.

But whether there will be a lot of poppies for the annual wildflower show is unpredictable because of the vagaries of winter weather.

The best wildflower seasons in the last 15 years were in 1991, 1995 and 1998, California parks officials say.

Dry winters are bad for wildflowers, but rain too early in the fall can be bad as well because it stimulates the growth of nonindigenous grasses, which crowd out wildflower sprouts.

The 1991 and 1995 displays benefited from rain in March, as well as cool and cloudy spring weather that prevented the vegetation from quickly drying out.

This year the reserve's interpretive association is producing three new brochures that are expected to be available for the visitor center opening.

One is a full-color brochure with photos identifying wildflowers, wild animals and reptiles that inhabit the area. Two other brochures are Korean and Japanese translations.

``We get bus loads of Korean people and Japanese people coming up,'' Stark said. ``Many of them don't speak English.''

The reserve is at 15101 Lancaster Road. Taped information on wildflower conditions can be heard at [phone]. Parking is $1 for senior citizens' vehicles and $2 for other vehicles.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- ran in Valley and AV editions only -- color in AV edition only) A poppy blooms in the Antelope Valley, where the California Poppy Reserve visitor center will open March 23.

(2 -- ran in Valley and AV editions only -- color in AV edition only)California poppies in a bright clump by Munz Ranch Road at Lancaster are harbingers of a splashy spring in the desert.

(3 -- color -- ran in AV edition only) Poppies bloom by Johnson Road in the Antelope Valley, where the California Poppy Reserve visitor center will open March 23.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer