What to Know
- March 1 is a kind of "Flowertine's Day" around LA and Southern California, due to the official openings of two major flower destinations
- The Flower Fields in Carlsbad are open from March 1 through May 12; admission is required and some activities may have an additional fee
- The visitor center at the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve opens on March 1; the poppies aren't popping but other wildflowers are now blooming
Calendars are colorfully crowded with ebullient occasions, those holidays where we celebrate an assortment of delicious foods, major milestones, important traditions, and meaningful moments.
We'll humbly submit that March 1 is also a wonderful holiday, at least around Southern California, for a few prominent flower-based happenings tend to begin when the month dawns.
It is, in fact, a sort of Flowertine's Day, a celebration of spring's-almost-here sweetness at two major flower destinations.
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Look to Carlsbad, and The Flower Fields, the rambling open-air attraction that is all about the petal-plush Giant Tecolote Ranunculus.
The popular destination opens on March 1 every year, making it a central part of the Flowertine's Day scene.
Well over 70,000,000 cultivated flowers bloom throughout a season — yep, all of those zeroes were intended, it is a huge number — with the peak bloom happening around the middle of April, or the later part of the month.
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Watching the attraction's updates on social media is a good way to stay informed. But don't dally: The closing date is always Mother's Day, which is May 12, 2024.
How, though, can we speak of flowers without a paean to the poppy, that obsessed-over orange icon that brings flutters to so many Californians' hearts as it flutters in the spring breeze?
We can't: March 1 is also a poppy-centered occasion, for sure.
Look to the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, another treasured destination with a March 1 opening.
That opening?
It's the first day of the new season for the Jane S. Pinheiro Interpretative Center, the official visitor center at the poppy fields.
The center always opens on March 1, in fact, and closes on Mother's Day, much like The Flower Fields, a location that is about three hours south of Antelope Valley, depending on traffic.
Important to know? The popular poppies are not yet blooming, per a recent social media post. So, for sure, you can visit the visitor center as of March 1, and admire the fiddlenecks and other wildflowers, but the orange carpet you seek hasn't yet been sighted.
Moreover, the size of the poppy bloom in 2024 is still unknown.
But wait: The Flowertine's fun continues!
March 1 is also the start of tulip time at Descanso Gardens in La Cañada Flintridge. Tulips are blooming already, but the peak bloom should arrive later in March.
And, really and truly and honestly: Staff members and volunteers planted 30,000 bulbs in January, meaning the big spray of spectacular hue will be amazing in just a few weeks.
