Flower festivals

Every year nearby in the Skagit Valley a Tulip Festival is held, April 1-30. On the way back from Whidbey Island yesterday, some of us stopped by the RoozenGaarde acreage to see how the tulips are coming along this year. It turns out they have lots of daffodils already, and after the tulips show their stuff, there are also acres of iris flowers to admire. I'll try to make it to each one.

We didn't expect to find anything other than the early-bird crocus, but there were a great number of different kinds of daffodils already in full bloom. I thought there is a difference between jonquils, narcissus, and daffodils, thinking that the ones I labeled here (above) as jonquils were a different species, but according to Wikipedia, they are all daffodils, same species with lots of different varieties. I've captured a few of them here, taken yesterday (March 4). And we even saw a few tulips beginning to show color! This is truly amazing. According to the website linked above,

This is one of the earliest daffodil blooms we have on record – due to the unseasonably warm winter weather. More daffodil fields will begin to show color in a very short time, and we expect some of the tulip fields to start showing some color towards the second half of March!!!

Here is one field we saw on the way back to the highway:

And of course we saw crocuses of many different kinds at RoozenGaarde. This one captured my heart, with the beautiful stripes and that amazing center! (Click any picture to enlarge.)

All four of the pictures above were taken yesterday either at RoozenGaarde or on the way home after our beautiful hike. But just now, while I was musing about how to present these wonderful flowers to you, I snapped this final picture of some crocus outside my apartment. I apologize to all of the snowbound Easterners for this imprudent display, but I just could not resist!

:-)