This festival has no outdoor bands, no costumed folks, and no dancing—unless you count the gazillion tulips waving in the fields. This is Washington State’s Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.
Put your "Two Lips" on an Expresso.
Getting us ready for the sight of the expansive tulip fields, our guide, Greg Coe, begins his narration right after the bus leaves the curb. He has a lot to tell about how and why tulips are grown in the famous Skagit Valley, an agricultural flatland just north of Seattle.
This part of Skagit County is only four feet above sea level, and over 200 agrarian crops are grown here. With a population of about 118,000 people, this valley is a major producer of cabbage, table beet, and spinach seed. The eight vegetable seed companies here produce a $21 million crop that’s marketed worldwide. Ninety percent of all the cabbage seeds in the world come from here.
“Cruciferous vegetables grow best in just four places in the world,” Greg says. “New Zealand, Tasmania, Oregon’s Willamette Valley, and Washington’s Skagit Valley.”
A colorful Skagit Valley tulip field.
But we want to know about flowers! Greg tells us that, “More tulip, daffodil and iris bulbs are produced in Skagit County than in any county in the United States. About 1,000 acres are cultivated and about 20 million bulbs are harvested each summer, with 50 million cut flowers accounting for about 50% of overall sales.”
Tulips grow two ways: by seed and by bulbs. The latter is faster. These 450 acres of tulips represent 75% of U.S. commercial production. Yet for every tulip bulb there are two daffodil and four iris bulbs planted.
The first tulip farm Greg introduces us to is Roozengaarde Flowers & Bulbs, the largest single bulb producer in the U.S., celebrating their 25th anniversary.
According to their catalogue (yes, you can order bulbs through the mail!): “We practice a five-year crop rotation schedule to maintain soil structure and diminish the diseases affecting our crops. This practice also minimizes soil erosion caused by wind and water.” Tulip fields are rotated every year because they deplete the soil. They don’t like a lot of water, so the irrigation ditches between the rows are deep. Every fall the bulbs are dug up and sorted to get them ready for early spring planting.
Roosengaarde is very eco-conscious: “All of our flower packaging product is recyclable if not bio-degradable. Recycled newspaper is used for flower packing and shipping. Shredded office paper is used for bulb packing and shipping.”
Sixteen acres of greenhouses under glass, tended with robotics, make it possible for Roosengaarde to provide for Seattle a year-round supply of top quality fresh-cut tulips, daffodils, iris and lilies. But this is only ten percent of the production. While the flowers are beautiful, the primary crop is the bulbs. Agra-tourism is a minor role by comparison.
Greg says a big machine comes through the fields to “play Marie Antoinette and cut off their heads.”
There are four acres of display gardens here, with a sign that says, “Stay on the path and please don’t pick the flowers.”
You too can tiptoe thru the tulips.
History Of Tulips
Tulips have a bright history.
Tulips were first discovered in central Asia in the Tien-Shan and Pamir Alai Mountain Ranges near modern day Islamabad and the border of Russia and China, and in Transcaucasia, the areas of Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Tulips enjoyed a long history in Persia, where they were cultivated as early as 1,000 AD; The Dutch were the first to cultivate them in Europe.
Tulips like cool mountainous regions and dry conditions.
Tulip bulbs are edible. Daffodil bulbs are poisonous, so you never want to put tulips and daffodils in the same vase because the daffodils will poison the tulips.
The name tulip is believed to have been inspired by the turban worn by the people of central Asia when it was known as the great Ottoman Empire. Translated into Latin, the word became tulipa. But Greg cautions: “If you ask two Dutchmen, you’ll get three opinions.”
Tulip Town
Our second farm visit is to Tulip Town, a Skagit Valley bulb farm owned by the Anthony DeGoede family. Many of these families came to this area after World War II.
The DeGoede’s provide tractor rides to the far end of their fields for a different camera vantage. They have also constructed a platform you can climb to get an even more expansive view of the rows and rows of bobbing reds, yellows, lavenders, whites, pinks.
Tulip Town.
This farm also has 1 ½ acres under glass. Here displays introduce us to tulip names like Keizerskroon, Princess Irene, Graffiti, Dynasty, Red Emporer, Christmas Marvel, Miranda and Mrs. J. Scheapers. (I can’t help but wonder who in their right mind would name a beautiful tulip, “Graffiti?”)
Want a tulip theme, buy it here.
The DeGoedes are also big fans of kites. There are impressive permanent flying displays, powered by the continuous winds across the valley.
Naturally both farms have lovely gift shops where you can buy everything tulip—trivets, aprons, notebooks, faux stained glass window decorations, refrigerator magnets, vases, linens, purses, colorful carved wooden tulip—and kites. You can buy one and enjoy the satisfaction of immediate flying excitement with your kids on the flat, spacious lawn of the surrounding gounds.
The popular kites of Tulip Town.
Leaving La Conner, we are treated to a sky filled with snow geese, wheeling and dipping over the fields in a tightly-coordinated air-dance. Our driver stops the motor coach so we can take probably as many pictures as there are snow geese!
On the ride back to Seattle, Greg tells us how La Conner came to be named. Louise A. Conner, wife of the founder of the town, received a letter on which the address was subsequently misread by the post office. Addressed to L.A. Conner—well, you can see where that went.
No tulip farm is complete without a windmill.
Extra tip: April can be crisp. Layered clothing is best, plus good walking shoes that can get muddy.
Besides their “Tip Toe Through The Tulips” excursion, Clipper Vacations offers overnight getaways (golf, ski & spa packages) to Canada’s Whistler, the San Juan Islands (for whale-watching), Portland, Oregon, and Victoria and Vancouver, British Columbia. Clipper Vacations also has specialized pre- and post-packages associated with Alaska cruises.
If by chance you escaped the Skagit Valley without making a tulip purchase, did we mention you can order them by mail?
— Feature and photos by Carolyn Hamilton-Proctor, Jetsetters Magazine Editor and Chief Adventuress. Visit Carolyn's Adventuress Travel Magazine.
La Conner Chamber of Commerce
606 Morris Street
La Conner, WA
Mailing address:
P.O. Box 1610
La Conner, WA 98257
Phone: (360).466.4778
Toll-Free: (888).642.9284
Fax: 360.466.0204
info@laconnerchamber.com
www.LaConnerChamber.com
Office Hours:
Monday-Friday, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Saturday, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Sunday, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.
(April - September only)
Clipper Vacations
Pier 69, Seattle
(206) 448-5000
or (800) 888-2535
www.ClipperVacations.com
Roozengaarde Flowers & Bulbs
P.O. Box 1248
Mount Vernon, WA 98273
(360) 424-0419
or (866) 488-5477
Fax (360) 424-3113
info@tulips.com
www.Tulips.com
Tulip Town Skagit Valley
Bulb Farm, Inc.
15002 Bradshaw Ranch
Mount Vernon, WA 98273
(360) 424.8152
tulips@tuliptown.com
www.TulipTown.com
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