Tag Archives: Daffodil Festival

Daffy Dressing

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One of our favorite things about the celebration of Spring on Nantucket that is the Nantucket Dafffodil Festival is the way that so many of the festival-goers dress up for the party.  Parents dress up their little ones in white and yellow, in flowers real and artistic.

The fun includes all ages and all genders — it’s as common to see men wearing elaborate Daffy Fest hats as it to see women wearing them.

Costume central during Daffy is Children’s Beach, where the Nantucket Island Chamber of Commerce (the masterminds behind and organizers of this weekend of fun) host the Children’s Parade and the Daffy Hat Pagent.  Participants start to gather as early as 10 am for the 10:30 am parade and the 10:45 am pageant.  Then everyone heads to Main Street for the Antique Car Parade.  Check our Calendar of Events for specifics about all the weekend events, and we’ll see you at Daffy Fest this weekend, April 27 and 28!

It All Starts with Daffy

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We’ve been enjoying the daffodils on Nantucket for weeks now, but tomorrow begins the weekend when we share them with thousands of visitors to our island.

Daffodil Festival Weekend is one of my favorite island events.  It’s one that island residents still attend, and in numbers equaling (if not exceeding) the visitors.  It’s an event that still belongs to us—and it’s so very tongue-in-cheek!  Participants dress up for the day.  You’re as likely to see women wearing extravagent hats as you are a group of young girls decked out like “daffy” ducks.

The antique car parade draws some impressive vehicles that have been housed in climate-controlled garages all winter, but it also includes some pretty funky old cars that the kid out in Tom Nevers has been working on for months to get it running.  All will be adorned in daffodils (real, plastic, and paper), ribbons and bows, and several will be transformed something completely different with drivers and passengers outfitted to match.

And the tailgate picnics…where else can you see people staging a picnic, complete with a musical score?

Nantucket’s Daffodil Festival is the start of The Season, but it’s still fun for us working stiffs who, come August, cannot wait till October.

Daffodils Bloom Early on Nantucket

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Daffodils have been blooming on the island since mid-February, giving those of us who spend the Quiet Season on Nantucket cheery reminders that spring is near.  We also wonder whether enough daffodils will be in bloom on Nantucket during that favorite island festival at the end of April to satisfy the celebrants.  Will Daffodil Festival organizers will be reduced to sneaking out early on the morning of April 27 to plant potted daffys along the roadsides?

To find out what we might expect for Daffodil Festival Weekend and the annual Nantucket Garden Club Daffodil Show, we chatted with Nantucket’s daffodil expert, Mary Malavase.  Her initial reply: “It’s gonna be interesting.”

“The ones blooming now at the Rotary,” she told us, “are an early variety (as most of the yellows are), and they benefit from the heat of the paving.”  She also mentioned that some daffodils that are planted in sheltered, sunny spots such as against foundations also come up earlier than others.  “We may have the chance to see varieties that bloom later at the show this year … a lot of the pink and all white daffodils are later varieties.  Tazettas and some Division 3s bloom later and are rarely in our show.  It depends on the weather, so this year you may see varieties in the show that you’ve never seen before.  Every year is different: some years there are a lot of yellow and oranges, this year we may have pinks and whites. It really will be interesting and very pretty.”

When the Nantucket Garden Club organized the planting of the Fairgrounds Road Bike Path and along Polpis Road, they choose early, mid-season, and late season varieties so that islanders and visitors would enjoy about six weeks of bloom.

Malavase also reminded us that island weather can get quite chilly in March and April. Cool weather will slow the daffodils, but won’t kill them.  “They’re pretty tough!  They love spring rain and cool nights.”

If you’ve thought about entering the Daffodil Show with a prized bloom, a flower arrangement, or a photograph of daffodils, the Garden Club is offering a workshop on Saturday, April 14. They’ll teach how to stage and enter daffodils, and they’ll offer tips for creating an arrangement.

As Mary Malavase says: “Once you enter and get a ribbon, you’re hooked.”