The Flower Fields are back with 80 million blooms blanketing 55 acres

Signs that spring is near in San Diego.

Spring training baseball. San Diegans taunting family and friends surviving snow and cold back east. And acres of bright, colorful flowers popping up in a huge field in Carlsbad.

This coming week brings all the signs of spring with the opening of The Flower Fields at Carlsbad Ranch. The annual attraction opens Sunday and runs through May 10.

The blooms are expected to attract hundreds of thousands of visitors over the course of the run. Although some come from out of the area, The Flower Fields has become a tradition for San Diego families, according to Taylor Moss, operations and marketing manager for the attraction.

“They’ve brought multiple generations that have grown up in the flower fields,” Moss said.

The display began in 1965 from a small farm and has grown to a 55-acre spectacle that blankets fields in North San Diego County.

It includes nearly 80 million individual flowers in a spectacular array of colors — red, pink, orange, yellow and white.

The flowers are giant Tecolote ranunculus, a species that thrives in San Diego’s coastal environment of sunny days and cool nights.

“That’s what ranunculus wants, bright sunshine,” Moss explained.

Although the display is open for just 10 weeks, work on the attraction goes on all year. Workers mow the old flowers down, prepare the flower beds, ready the water drainage system and reseed the fields.

“It takes a lot of work,” Moss said.

But visitors can enjoy more than flowers. New this year is a 1,000-square-foot greenhouse where guests can feed and view hundreds of butterflies fluttering.

“They tend to love the scent of vanilla and the color white,” Moss said.

The Flower Fields also includes live music, wine tasting and wellness programs, including meditation and yoga classes. There will also be tractor wagon rides and a Sweet Pea Maze for youngsters.

Some of the activities cost extra. Moss urged people to consider weekday visits, which offer special pricing.

More information about the activities, as well as tickets, can be found here.