Happiness is blooming: Unusually short daffodil season brings out love, families

May 14, 2018

For Kayla Silvia, the daffodil fields at Parsons Reserve will always be a reminder of the day she said yes to marrying her boyfriend Patrick Faria.

After spending the day at a ball game, Faria talked Silvia into going to see the fields where he had a surprise question written on their son Hudson’s shirt. As the mother and son posed for a photo Faria took off Hudson’s coat revealing the question.

“Mommy, will you marry my daddy?” it read.

It wasn’t until Silvia went to see what the photo looked like did she notice something was written on her son’s shirt. Astounded by how cleverly they had pulled off the surprise all she could think about before answering yes was how she hadn’t noticed something was up.

The visit also reminded Silvia of her family tradition growing up, where they would go take spring photos at the fields for her mother to have. Now as her family grows larger Silvia and Faria will take their son.

“We had gone to the daffodil field once a year, just to go see them and take our spring pictures, just to have for her, so that was always nice. When [Faria] took me I was like ‘Oh my God we get to take our son.’”

She is not the only one to visit. About 8,200 people made the trek to the Horseneck Road reserve to take in the sights of the fields of flowering daffodils.

However, contrary to the popular saying, not all April showers bring May flowers. This year’s season was unusually short, only lasting three weeks, according to DNRT Development and Outreach Specialist Kendra Murray.

Normally, the season goes for four weeks or a little longer, but due to a cold and rainy April the daffodils bloomed later than usual.

Amanda Sladewski has a tradition of taking her son, Luke, to see the flowers every year. The little boy stopped and took in huge whiff of the flowers.

“Luke likes making his way through the woodchip maze path,” Sladewski said.

Lots of people also took their dogs to the fields. Kristin Daugirda took her son Eli and their dog Leroy for a short hike, stopping to see the flowers as well.