SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — You’ve probably seen the blooming wildflowers springing up along our roads and freeways, a sign that spring is here in San Diego County. CBS 8 gathered video of roadside flowers in Santee, Lake Murray, Tijuana River Valley, and Alpine.
“On the I-8 freeway, they’re amazing,” said Alpine resident Elisa Peskin. “The wildflower bloom out here right now is insane with all the rain this year. We see flowers that we haven’t seen in years just all of a sudden pop-up, so it’s kind of that rebirth of the spring and all the rainfall, and mother nature just has its way of painting a beautiful picture out here.”
“It’s beautiful, I’m in awe, so much color, the vibrant oranges and yellows, and it’s just like they’re smiling at you,” said Kathleen Fortenberry.
“All of this rain has given us a rare opportunity, and that is to bring up a lot of our regional plant diversity, so we have a lot of plants showing their face, so to speak, in San Diego County that we haven’t seen in many years,” said Jon Rebman, Curator of Botany at the San Diego Natural History Museum.
“We have some amazing species, and they’re absolutely beautiful; this is the year to get out there and the opportunity to actually see them up close and kind of start to enjoy and admire the beauty in our backyards.”
“The flowers are just beautiful, it’s so nice to see all the different colors, and we were just talking about how flowers make you feel so happy,” said Lauren Brendel. “It’s the colors, the variety, how wonderful they smell; they lift your spirits.”
WATCH RELATED: Golden poppy blooms in Lake Elsinore, city shuts down hiking trail