Ocotillo Blooms 2020!

Each spring, the desert comes alive as the wildflowers bloom and transform the Yuha Desert into a colorful canvas, and the best place to celebrate this is at the Imperial Valley Desert Museum!

On Sunday, February 23, the IVDM hosted its 2^nd Annual Ocotillo Blooms! – a community based event designed for families and children to come out to the Museum and celebrate wildflowers blooming in our desert and learn the many values of native plants.

This year we had 170 attendees, many of them being families with young children. The event included food,music, vendors, painting, a water color activity, scavenger hunt, desert biome lecture, and butterfly release. We were able to release 100 painted butterflies into our desert!

Our vendors included, Vince & Victor Zazueta, who were set up with a compost station, and natural products for sampling and purchasing. Some of the items available were loofahs, seeds, and fresh homemade lemonade! Imperial County Behavioral Health Services Positive Engagement Team (P.E.T.) provided a booth with their therapy dog, Bo, who made many friends including our resident tortoise Speedy! Loko Bean Cafe's coffee cart had many refreshing drinks to offer like Italian soda, iced coffee, and chamangos, as well as cotton candy.

It was a beautiful day in the desert to celebrate the yearly phenomenon known as the desert bloom. A desert bloom occurs when enough rainfall penetrates dormant seeds and causes them to grow quickly before desert conditions cause them to dry out again. We received a small wave of rainfall two weeks prior to the event, which caused the brittlebush, Ocotillo, and creosote to thrive surrounding the museum. We look forward to what it's in store for us next year!

Thank you to our sponsors El Centro Costco, the Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment, participants, vendors, staff, and volunteers for making this event possible!