Warm weather means P.E.I.'s Belfast Tulips are blooming earlier than usual

Belfast Tulips is getting ready to open a week sooner than expected after an early spring led to its first tulips being ready to bloom.

The U-pick tulip field in eastern P.E.I. that has become known as a seasonal photographer's heaven is set to open to visitors this Friday, seven days before its previously planned opening date of May 23.  

Trisha Viaene, who does the marketing for the family-owned operation, said she's looking forward to their fifth season kicking off on the long weekend.

"It's bigger and we get better every year," she told CBC News.

Belfast Tulips started in 2020 with two acres of U-pick flowers grown from bulbs, and this year they've expanded to four and a half acres, located between Lower Newtown and Eldon in southeastern P.E.I. 

Viaene said there are three growing stages in tulips, and picking them earlier in the blooming season has its advantages.

"You got buds, you got early flower, then you got the full bloom, so we're seeing buds with a little bit of early flowers coming in now," she said.

"There's a lot of advantages. One is, like, you get the first pick of the crop, and... they're going to last you a long time."

She said past patrons have some tricks for extending their cut tulips' lives.

"They'll leave them in the fridge, so they're able to actually enjoy their tulips for a much longer period of time. We did have somebody tell us before that they had their tulips last like a month and a half, by kind of just rotating out their bunches, so that's a big bonus [for] coming now."

The U-pick tulips are sold by the bucket, with each bucket provided to pickers holding up to 100 stems for people to break down into smaller arrangements for different rooms or for sharing.

As for colours, Viaene said they have "the whole rainbow" across all of their fields — almost.

"You're going to see everything there except for blue; blue is not really a natural flower colour... but you'll see honestly every colour there, including some mixed-colour tulips," she said.

"A lot of people enjoy getting that perfect Instagram photo or getting family photos in there."