Carlsbad in bloom at The Flower Fields
It took a bit of imagination to appreciate The Flower Fields in Carlsbad, which hadn’t quite flowered by Sunday’s soggy opening day.
The 55-acre working farm was mostly awash in green, but a pocket of vibrantly colored Giant Tecolote Ranunculuses were in bloom, giving visitors who braved the rain a taste of what the fields would look like fully flowered in a couple of weeks.
The blossoms are a little behind this year, said Fred Clarke, the farm’s general manager, but 70 million flowers will burst into color before spring’s end.
“It’s a feast for the eyes,” he said. “Is the flower field the ninth wonder of the world? I don’t know what the eighth is, but the Flower Fields could be the ninth in my book.”
The attraction pays homage to a floriculturally rich past, when hundreds of acres of flower and fruit fields stretched south of Poinsettia Lane to Batiquitos Lagoon to El Camino Real, and hillsides of gladiolus bloomed in Encinitas.
Over the years, the land gave way to development including amusement parks, resorts and shopping malls, but a deal was cut to preserve a small slice of the farm land in perpetuity — The Flower Fields.
“It’s like a painting — you just can’t stop looking at it,” said Mary Ann Dolan, who has worked at the fields for 11 years. “There’s joy here. It’s just beautiful.”
Every year, about 125,000 visitors tour the ranunculus fields, which boast thirteen brilliantly bright colors including sunset gold, pink and a newer hue, merlot. Some of those colors were discovered and bred at the farm, Clarke said.
Every now and again, Mother Nature puts a twist on the traditional ranunculus — maybe with a new color, or an extra tall stem or a particularly full blossom. Specially trained crews comb the fields looking for these special plants. If one is found — and sometimes it’s only one plant, Clarke said — the plant’s bulbs are harvested and years are spent cultivating it into a full crop.
Most of the flowers that bloom are planted to be enjoyed by visitors, Clarke said. Tourism is a big part of the farm’s revenue stream.
The product? “The beauty of it all,” he said.
The farm also sells ranunculus bulbs and about 7 million of the blooms as cut flowers. Luckily, as bulb sales have declined, revenue from cut flowers , which have an excellent vase life, has increased.
The fields were drizzly Sunday, but that didn’t keep Priscilla Dagarag from kneeling near the flowers with her 5-year-old grandson.
The 74-year-old is a retired teacher from the Philippines, but has spent the last year in Fresno, with her son. She said the fields remind her of her home in Baguio City, which celebrates a monthlong flower festival.
“It’s amazing, wonderful, beautiful,” she said. “It’s nice how they are arranged. It reminds me of Baguio in the summer, when the flowers are all in bloom.”
The Flower Fields will be open everyday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. through May 10. Tickets cost $6 to $12, and a couple dollars more to ride through the fields in a wagon. For more information, visit www.theflowerfields.com.
