The flowering season has begun in New England and right now, daffodils are the star of the show.
Twenty-seven varieties of daffodils line a 2-acre walking trail at Parsons Reserve in Dartmouth.
"The warm weather we had last week really accelerated the bloom quickly, and folks have been out there in droves both last weekend and also this week with school vacation," said Nick Wildman, executive director of the Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust.
Wildman said the first daffodils were planted on the property during World War II.
"For many, many years it was sort of a hush-hush kind of underground thing. We didn't publicize it. You just had to be kind of in the know to take in this special opportunity for three or four weeks every spring," he said. "Now, with the rise of social media, we've had a flock of interest."
The Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust isn't the only Massachusetts space where you can can enjoy blankets of yellow daffodils in bloom. The Trustees has spring flower shows in North Andover and Stockbridge, and the New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hillin Boylston boasts a daffodil field with over 25,000 bulbs. Mark Richardson, the botanic garden's director of horticulture, says the first of those bulbs were planted in 1991, and the field has grown in the decades since.
"Daffodils are naturalizing, so they continue to grow every single year. So, that one bulb that you plant probably turns into the equivalent of six or eight bulbs over time," he explained. "So there's tons and tons of blooms out in the daffodil field right now. It looks fantastic."
Richardson says while daffodils aren't native to North America, they have acclimated to New England quite well since they were introduced.
"They're happy. They're well adapted to our soil and temperature conditions," he explained.
But if you want to see the flowers, don't wait to plan a visit.
"They're truly a spring ephemeral," Richardson said. "In the next few weeks, daffodil foliage will start to die back to the ground."
