Last weeks snow was short lived, the last few days temps have been inching up towards a balmy 50 degrees. Today I did a bit of reconnoitering in the tulip zone.

The daffodils fields have sprouted, the green little shoots about 2 to 3 inches high…

How long until we see flowers? My experience is that on sunny warm day (sunny and temps in the 50’s or 60’s) the flowers speed up by a factor of 5 over a regular day (temps in the 40’s and cloudy).

So, if we get a solid 4 or 5 days of warm, it wont be too long. If the cool temps hang around, maybe we’ll see Daffodils at the end of Feb. That’s what I am betting on.

The La Conner Daffodil Festival web site has a link to the current Bloom Map, and you can see where the various types of dazzling flowers will pop up amongst the tapestry of fields.

The last 4 years have seen the bloom dates get earlier. Last two years have seen the tulip fields getting topped before mid-April!

So, stay informed, as the blooming can change fast, but generally plan for the last week of March or first week of April, latest, to pay a visit!

The Official Site of the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival holds the key to all you need for a fantastic visit for Tulip Festival.

If you don’t love lots of traffic, try to avoid Saturday and Sundays between 10am and 5pm. Pretty much any other time will find you a lot more space!

I tend to head over for sunrises, any day for sunrise is good. Even on the weekends there are very few people for sunrises. And the weekdays are wonderful for sunset shooting.

Tulip Festival Photo Tours

I provide Tulip Photo Tours for anyone interested. These half day Photo Tours are a blast, we’ll visit as many of the best fields as we can, and along the way I will offer any advice (if wanted!) about exposure and composition. Here is the link to find out more.