If you plant it, they will come - at least that’s the hope for the people behind Lakeland Flowers.
The Fraser Valley’s largest U-pick flower farm officially opened for the spring on April 14, and the attraction has been generating a lot of buzz online. The farm’s Instagram account @lakelandflowers has nearly doubled in the past week.
The farm, located at 39171 No 4 Road in east Abbotsford, showcases over 5 million tulips and other flowers on 35-acres.
Nick Warmerdam and his family have been running the farm for 47 years and grow millions of daffodils, tulips, peonies, and sunflowers each year. The attraction is open seven days a week, from 7 a.m. to dusk and is expected to remain open until at least Mother’s Day.
Warmerdam helped out his daughter Alexis Warmerdam with Bloom Abbotsford Tulip Festival for several years before it departed the Fraser Valley and decided to give more attention to his farm this year.
“I seriously started planning this whole idea about June of last year,” he told The News. “We planted the bulbs in October and it did take some planning to space everything out the way we wanted to.”
He said there are about 40 varieties of different flowers, chosen based on how tall they stand and also on what people like to look at. There are also early, mid and late-season varieties meaning that whenever an attendee goes they will likely have options to take home and admire.
Warmerdam pointed out that it is a much simpler and scaled down version of what some may remember from Bloom. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, it’s recommended to wear a mask, remain socially distanced and follow the directional arrows. There will also be no food trucks or selfie stations to encourage on-site traffic to flow efficiently.
“We are keeping things a little simpler but the thing that comes forward and becomes more important now is just the chance to walk around with the flowers - that is exactly the same,” he said. “They just now have the opportunity to pick something themselves along the way and take it home.”
Picking flowers is as easy as it sounds, and there are designated places on the field where attendees can choose their flowers. There are also directions on how to remove the flowers on-site. For those unaware, you simply reach down as close to the soil level as possible, grasp the stem and pull straight up.
Ticketing is done completely online and costs $8 for five U-pick tulip stems on weekdays and $16 for 10 U-pick tulips stems on weekends.
Warmerdam also stated that he hopes this becomes an annual event and plans to host other similar flower-themed events in the summer.
For more information, visit lakelandflowers.ca.
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