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Pike Place Market Shares The 'Floral Love' To Celebrate Spring

Paula Wissel
Buckets of daffodils ready to be given out to people in downtown Seattle.

Volunteers spread out around downtown Seattle today carrying buckets filled with daffodils. Handing out the flowers on the first day of spring is an 18 year tradition.

Pike Place Market spokesman Scott Davies says it's a way for the market to celebrate spring.

“We share the floral love with people downtown," said Davies.

Nine thousand daffodils were handed out during the noon hour. Davies says some people are reluctant to take them.

“People sometimes want to know what we're selling and we just tell them we're selling the first day of spring and then they are happy," Davies said.

Now that it is such a tradition, though, he says some people have come to expect and look forward to the free flowers.

“We even have bus drivers stop so we can give them daffodils," he said.

I watch as volunteers stand on street corners and walk through parks giving flowers to tourists, office workers and homeless guys.

Everyone who gets a daffodil seems to give back a smile.

Paula is a former host, reporter and producer who retired from KNKX in 2021. She joined the station in 1989 as All Things Considered host and covered the Law and Justice beat for 15 years. Paula grew up in Idaho and, prior to KNKX, worked in public radio and television in Boise, San Francisco and upstate New York.