It might not be feeling like May with the cool weather this week, but spring is very much in bloom at Elizabeth Park, which lies on the Hartford-West Hartford line. While there are some restrictions in place, the park is still open for everyone to enjoy.
"It's in full bloom,” says Rosemary Aldridge, the Consulting Horticulturist at Elizabeth Park. “So it's just about at its peak so that's really pretty spectacular."
Thanks to a mild winter but cool start to spring, our wacky Connecticut weather actually helped the garden this year.
"We had a cool April which is nice because it lets the flower buds develop slowly and they'll come up and bloom slowly,” Aldridge said.
But while many people enjoyed our big warm-up this past weekend, the flowers did not.
"The one tricky day was over this past weekend when the tulip garden is up in full bloom and we get a hot day and some of the flowers go by very quickly so we pray for cool weather," Aldridge said.
Temperatures around 50-55 degrees are ideal for tulips and that is right around where we’ll be for most of the next ten days. Even those cooler nights won’t bother the blooming buds.
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While the tulips are blooming outside, the Elizabeth Park annuals are blooming inside.
"The greenhouses are getting really full, and they're getting really big,” said Aldridge. “So they're going to be ready to go out as soon as the tulips are done."
The annual gardens are expected to be complete mid-June, which is right around peak bloom for the historic rose gardens.
To help maintain safe, social distancing, Elizabeth Park has kept a fence up around the tulip garden since the garden walkways are rather narrow. There is also no parking or driving through the park, but there is plenty of room on side streets to park and walk right in.
