SKAGIT VALLEY TULIP FESTIVAL feeds the soul with colour
In April, the month-long festival of flowers in Washington State delights hundreds of thousands of visitors from the United States, Canada and other countries
After two years of COVID-19 restrictions and shutdowns, I was thrilled to hear the Canadian government was opening the border in early April to vaccinated travellers from the U.S., without requiring a negative COVID-19 test before entering the country.
This would be our first trip to the West Coast since the pandemic began. I packed our bags, camera and rain gear and we headed out to Vancouver to spend a couple of weeks with our son and his family.
Keeping our security in mind, we visited as many outdoor gardens and bulb farms as we could squeeze into a two week visit — what a treat.
Since 2010, I have tried to schedule a spring visit to Vancouver every year, to take in the early greenery, cherry blossoms, daffodil and tulip fields and the many display gardens featured on the coast of British Columbia and in Washington state. While the weather may not always co-operate, I can put up with a little rain and cool coastal temperatures — the vibrant colours feed my soul.
This year, we were able to visit the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival in Washington and take in the farm fields carpeted with brilliant tulips and fragrant daffodils. Despite last fall’s devastating floods, the farms managed to put a brave face forward and offered an impressive show of colour.
The festival runs for the month of April and welcomes hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the United States, Canada and other countries. For a nominal charge, visitors are welcomed to park their cars and tour the extensive fields of tulips and daffodils and visit the display gardens and shops. It’s truly an event for all ages — dressed to the hilt in their spring finery or super casual in jeans and rubber boots. Everyone comes out to celebrate the flowers, have their picture taken with the spectacular fields as a backdrop, or hone up their selfie skills trying to capture that perfect moment.
In 1947, William Roozen emigrated from Holland and a few years later started a bulb farm in the tradition of six generations of his forebears. Today, the Roozen family grows tulips, daffodils and irises with more than 405 hectares of field blooms and 6.5 ha of greenhouses in the Skagit Valley. The farm also includes a 1.2-ha show garden planted with some 300,000 spring-flowering bulbs, artistically displayed in waves of colour.
On my first visit to the Skagit Valley, I was shocked to see teams of workers stripping the flowers from the tulips and dropping the spent flowers into the rows between the planted bulbs. As they were finished topping one section, a tractor followed behind them, tilling the petals into the soil. Why was this happening?
Tulips are topped (flowers cut off ) about three weeks after blooming to encourage the plant to put all of its energy into growing new bulbs rather than growing seeds, the stems and leaves are left intact until they die back naturally. The flowers are also removed to prevent the petals from falling on the leaves and possibly impeding the foliage from putting its energy into feeding the new bulbs. Six to eight weeks after removing the blooms, growers dig the bulbs and begin the process of drying, cleaning, grading and conditioning the bulbs before they are shipped to customers in the fall.
In the home garden, we can follow the grower’s lead and top the tulips as they finish blooming, leaving the stems and foliage to feed the new bulbs for the coming season.
Tulips are native to Eastern Turkey and the foothills of the Himalayas. They will perennialize best in conditions that match the cold winters and hot, dry summers of their native region. Species and botanical tulips, have smaller bulbs and flowers, but they are more willing to perennialize.
If you would like to encourage your tulips to put on a better show next spring, here are a few tips from the growers at RoozenGaarde:
Always plant tulips in a welldrained and airy soil. Wet soil promotes fungus and disease and can even rot bulbs, especially tulip bulbs. Adding compost and coarse sand to heavy soil will make it more airy. Raised beds are recommended in areas with heavy, wet soil. Ideally, tulips should be grown in a depth of 25 centimetres of loose airy soil.
Fertilize and water bulbs when planting. Though too much water is not good, sufficient water at the time of planting is necessary to get them growing and to ensure the start of a strong root system.
Plant tulips about 15 to 20 cm deep, measuring from the base of the bulb. If you add mulch after planting, include this as part of your overall planting depth.
Fertilizing in the fall with special bulb fertilizer is always a good idea, especially if you haven’t dug your bulbs and are trying to get them to perennialize.