Early season cherry blossoms, courtesy Lautenbach's Orchard Country Winery & Market on Facebook

FISH CREEK — The warm days during our off-again-on-again spring in Door County have been a welcome relief after the long winter.

And the cherry trees are taking advantage of those warmer days as well.

Typically, we’d still be a few weeks out from cherry blossom season, but at least one orchard reports their cherry buds blossomed over the weekend to kick off the 2023 season.

Lautenbachs Orchard Country Winery and Market Blossom posted to its Facebook page that sweet cherries were popping out Sunday.

Tart cherry blossoms are expected to bloom over Mother’s Day weekend.

“Hopefully they last a couple of weeks,” Lautenbach’s wrote.

Just a week ago, workers from Hyline Orchard Farm Market between Egg Harbor and Fish Creek were out marking trees that needed to be replaced, but the buds were already looking like they were ready to bloom.

There are plenty of opportunity to see and photograph the blossoms just by driving the Door up on Highway 42 and down on Highway 57.

But if you’d like a professional touch, Seaquest Orchard has teamed up with Tandem Photography for mini photography sessions in their orchards on Friday, May 19.

Visitors wanting to keep track of blossom season in real time can follow Destination Door County’s Cherry Blossom Report HERE.

It’s currently showing Stage 1, which is budding, but likely will update in the next few days.

Blossom season is expected to last until the end of the month with prime cherry picking time from mid-July to mid-August.

By Dan Plutchak

Editor and publisher of the Door County Shore Report