BOISE — It's the first week of September, with Treasure Valley temperatures still cresting in the mid-90s, it's too soon to call it the end of summer.
So, it's still too soon for Halloween decorations, right? And way too soon for pumpkin spice lattes. But what about Christmas decorations?
But not for the groundskeepers at the Idaho Botanical Garden. You know, the place that puts on the Winter Garden aGlow.
"Yep," says Erin Anderson, executive director of Idaho Botanical Garden. "But it does not feel like winter right now."
Still that hasn't stopped Kato Dutton and his eager elves from getting an early start on the Christmas season.
"Usually we wait until the end of September, beginning of October," says Kato, who's worked with laying lights for the last eight years.
But this year, their 22nd of fitting the flora with flashing brilliance, they didn't want to delay. Especially since they plan on packing the perennials and evergreens with even more lights than ever before.
"Close to 500,000 (lights) this year," says Kato.
That's about 50,000 more than last year, when more than 70,000 people saw the sparkling sight during the 40 days of the festival.
And if you're going to get bigger, you gotta start sooner.
"Exactly, exactly," agrees Erin.
Keto and his crew actually started this crusade a couple days ago.
"We've probably put up 350 strands of lights, so far," he says.
With the late summer sun bearing down on the botanical garden it bears remembering it's better to blanket the bows in bulbs when the temperatures are 95 rather than 25.
"And fingers are cold and toes are cold," continues Erin. "And you're in a hurry and you're panicked and you gotta get it done."
So early September, you can hold off on the Halloween and the hot pumpkin coffee.
"Yes, too soon," agrees Erin. "But not for Christmas lights, not for us."
The Idaho Botanical Garden is a non-profit, and one quarter of its $1.8 million funding comes from the Winter Garden aGlow.
The 40-day event begins November 19 and runs through January 5. New this year, Santa will be there every day and they will open a half hour earlier to accommodate the growing crowd.