Spring flower forecast good; visitors uncertain

As this issue goes to press, the outlook for daffodils and tulips is brighter than the outlook for visitors to admire them.

“This year is far better than last year, when all our early daffodils were burnt by the extended deep freeze,” said Brent Roozen of the Washington Bulb Company.

Roozen says daffodils and tulips have flourished thanks to the wet winter and ongoing cool nights. When picked before blooming, cut daffodils can “last forever” if they are not in the sun and temperatures are in the 40s.

Field-picked daffodils have been shipped to Washington Bulb customers at tulips.com as well as Kroger and other grocery stores across the country. Carnation resident Kevin Rust drives to Beaver Marsh Road every March to buy six dozen boxes to ship to his company’s customers, some as far away as Illinois and Kansas. “It’s a way of saying ‘happy springtime’ to customers and family,” he said.

“The daffodil fields look beautiful”, said Heather Carter, director of the La Conner Chamber of Commerce, who visits them frequently for her daily daffodil report. “A lot of people are excited to come up and see them because it’s a self-driving tour.”

In other words, driving past flower fields is a form of “social distancing” that complies with all recommendations from local, state and national health departments. As well, a car trip to the Valley can’t be cancelled or postponed – unlike many other aspects of this spring’s flower festivals.

While the Dandy Daffodil Tweed Ride will still take place, the Jazz Valley concert slated for March 7 at Maple Hall was cancelled. Ditto the La Conner Fire Department St. Patrick’s Day Dance. The Chamber’s ice cream social has been postponed to June 25.

There will be no Tulip Gala, no Rexville Grange art show and no Kiwanis Salmon Barbeque at Hillcrest Park in Mount Vernon. La Conner’s annual Tulip Run and Tulip Parade will not take place.

For now, Roozengaarde and Tulip Town display gardens will open, but the Roozens are playing the wait-and-see game. “We’re evaluating day by day and staying in touch with public health,” Roozen said.

“Ninety-five per cent of our revenue comes when the flowers are up and if people are hunkered down they aren’t going to be in our fields,” said Andrew Miller of Tulip Town.

“Our outdoor venue has tons of space for social distancing, but if the masses are not moving, then they are not going to move themselves up here.”

The cold weather now slowing down the tulips may end up being a blessing, if the governor’s ban on large public gatherings is lifted at the end of March.

The Tulip Town crew hopes that the first wave of self-quarantine will subside just when tulips move into maturity. “It certainly won’t be an all-clear, but for a lot of people being in a field and seeing the tulips kicks off spring,” Miller said.

Last Saturday, the cars lining Chilberg Road were not tourists but workers cutting field daffodils at the Hulbert farm. On Calhoun Road, a few hardy tourists had pulled over to admire an early Roozen field.

In town, Lora Kuntz stood outside the Visitors Center sporting a yellow hat she had decorated with satin daffodils. Her attention-getting millinery was meant to attract passersby to the Kiwanis table, where her husband John was selling two bunches for five dollars.

Sales were slow on the chilly, sunny day, “but our chapter president says sales are good,” John Kuntz said.

“The Daffodil Festival is a celebration covering everything happening here in the Valley and La Conner in March,” said Carter. “We are still promoting La Conner and its businesses and eating and shopping locally.”