Spring is arriving very early this year - flowers are starting to bloom, trees are budding out and mosquitoes are out in force.
Points south are feeling the effects too - from the Skagit Valley Herald:
With daffodils in bloom, can tulips be far behind?
A mild winter could bring an early bloom for tulips this year, but there’s little concern it will hurt the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, organizers and growers say.
Meanwhile, La Conner is starting the celebration of spring flowers early with its inaugural Daffodil Festival.
But it is not unknown:
“We’ve had early years in the past. Exactly how this year compares to the last 30 or 40 years, we’ll know that when it happens,” Roozen said. “When they will bloom exactly, we don’t know that. Everything kind of follows with the weather.”
The Skagit Valley Bulb Farm, which operates Tulip Town on Bradshaw Road, expects to have tulips blooming by the last weekend of March, said co-owner Jeanette DeGoede. Tulip Town will also open in advance of the Tulip Festival, on March 27, she said.
DeGoede said she doesn’t think an early tulip bloom will affect plans for this year’s festival. The farm usually has multiple bloom times each year, and if anything, an earlier start will allow visitors who show up in early April to see full fields in bloom, she said.
These cycles have come and gone before - high pressure ridge over the West coast. Looking forward to the longer growing season - Lulu planted some stuff today while I was in town shopping.
