The banks along highways in the City of St. Louis put on an annual yellow show each spring.
More than 12 million daffodils hit their peak blooming season about the first week in April, said Dan Skillman, Parks Commissioner. "Daffodils have to survive some pretty harsh conditions. This year we had an early warm spell, followed by extreme cold. Last year we had an inch of snow cover the flowers just as they were starting to bloom and then the temperature fell to 17 degrees. Each year we are afraid they were goners but they always bounce back and put on a beautiful display," Skillman said.
Daffodils are expected to be in full bloom for about 10 days to two weeks, Skillman said. Daffodils need 12 to 14 weeks with temperatures below freezing. The normal winter in St. Louis is not good for daffodils since we get only 6 to 7 weeks of sub-freezing weather in an average winter. The longer cold weather cycle allows the bulbs to divide and spread. "Mild winters mean the bulbs won't naturalize and we must continue to plant more bulbs each year," said Sansar Chand, chief horticulturist. Daffodils are planted in beds on I-55, I-44, I-64 (Highway 40) and I-70. The daffodils blooming outside of the large beds are the remainder of previous plantings. The beds have been moved to encourage better flowers. |
St. Louis is the largest planter of daffodils in the world with about 12 million bulbs planted since the project started in 1982. Each year new bulbs are added to the beds. Workers plant 400,000 bulbs each fall.
