DESERT BOUQUET

Spring, enchanting sorceress, brings the flowers to the desert and puts the bloom and color in our desert bouquet. The desert is always a thing of beauty but in spring it primps and poses and takes on a loveliness that to the beholder bespeaks the stroke of some magic wand. No matter how often you see it, our desert bouquet, with its myriad of flowers, is a memorable sight.

Those who live in the desert or those whose leisure moments are spent in following its lazy, dusty trails say that generally desert flowers bloom from Washington's Birthday to the Fourth of July. The flowering season will vary with the year but if you seek your bouquet April, May and June are delightful months for your search. At this time you are sure to find the desert wearing the gayest of corsages.

If you should be lucky enough to wander into the desert during what desert folks call a "wet" spring, then you will see the desert at its best. A green carpet of grass is stretched invitingly before you. Poppies and many other small flowers dance their dance in the sun. In places they are so thick they make up the patterned floor covering that rolls out before you almost as far as you can see. During a "dry" spring, the seeds that hold these flowers lie dormant in the desert soil, holding their charm for more favorable weather.

During a "wet" spring you will discover the cacti vying with each other to produce the largest blossoms in greatest numbers, spendthrifts spending their beauty with lavish recklessness. Rain is the miracle worker in the desert.

This year we are having a "dry" spring, but that should not deter you if your quest is a desert bouquet. Regardless of the whims of the rain gods, the desert always pays fitting tribute to the smiling season. The flowers may not be so numerous, but they are just as exquisite and bewitching, their colors as vivid and luminous, their petals as waxy and delicate, the craftsmanship that formed them just as exacting and elegant.

The aimless roads follow their aimless ways into the desert, inviting you to the purple hills not so far ahead. You who seek will have no trouble finding your desert bouquet this spring. The flowers are there awaiting you. R. C.