Tulips, more tulips, and a Clown named Scruffles: What's up in April

A massive snowstorm is making its way towards the Fraser Valley. Expect ice, arctic winds, and buckets of billowing snow over the next few days.

Just kidding. 

The arrival of April in the Fraser Valley brings, alongside a smattering of April Fools’ jokes, the full-fledged arrival of spring. Flowers sprout in the fields. The days are longer and the sun is more and more likely to make an appearance. And a new season of farm festivals and competitions begins. 

Flowers

April is a big month for flowers and farming in the Fraser Valley. Plenty of events this month will centre around the rhythms of agriculture and the preparing, planting, and growing season. 

Several flower festivals will return to the valley this month. Tulip festivals in particular abound.

The Harrison Tulip Festival, which began on Seabird Island in 2006 before relocating to Chilliwack, will be back in Agassiz this year. The 109-acre farm will be open to visitors starting April 8. It will feature 10 million tulips, as well as hyacinths, fritallia, double daffodils, and more. This year, the festival has added a new addition with a two-and-a-half acre show garden, with a wide variety of different flowers and flowering fruit trees. 

The newly-rebranded Botanica Tulip Festival, in Chilliwack, is planning to open mid-April with 13 acres of colourful blooms. The festival boasts 59 different kinds of tulip sprouting just off Highway 1 at Yale Road, just over the Vedder Canal Bridge. The site also allows visitors to pick their own flowers and take them home.

The Abbotsford Tulip Festival at Lakeland Flowers is scheduled to begin on April 15. The farm’s 35 acres of tulips and flowers are studded with photo-taking props including a baby grand piano and giant shoes (for some reason.) Lakeland Flowers runs flower festivals all summer, starting with tulips in the spring and ending with sunflowers in the fall.

A different kind of flower celebration, the 94th annual Bradner Flower Show in Abbotsford will feature hundreds of daffodil varieties, many developed locally, and plants and shrubs for sale at wholesale prices. Proceeds from the flower sales will go to the Abbotsford Regional Hospital. The show will run from April 12 to 14, with an opening ceremony featuring Scruffles the Clown. We wrote about the history of the show two years ago.

Horses and fields

Flowers aren’t all a farm-themed spring in the Fraser Valley has to offer. 

Langley’s Thunderbird Show Park will host its Show Park Grand Prix later this month, on April 20. Spectators will be able to see seasoned and professional show jumpers in all their glory at the arena as they compete in the tournament. The tournament is one of the first of 14 major events scheduled for the park this summer.

For much (much) slower, but no less special, horses and horse-handlers, the 102nd Chilliwack Plowing Match will be held at Greendale Acres in Chilliwack on Saturday, April 6. The event celebrates Chilliwack’s rich farming history and includes games and activities for spectators—and the opportunity to try one’s own hand at a plow themselves. There will also be a pancake breakfast by donation. In 2022, we wrote about what turns your average plower into a champion. 

Beginning April 4, Greendale Acres is also hosting their Sweet Spring Flower Festival, which features spring flower gardens and visits with Lily, a baby lamb.