Tulip daze
The Skagit Valley is bursting into bloom right now
Back in the 17th century, Holland went completely and utterly mad for tulips. Tulip mania, they called it. So crazy were the Dutch for the elegant flowers that in March 1637, right at the height of the madness, a single bulb reportedly sold for 10 times the annual income of a skilled craftsman.
It all sounds a little nuts until you find yourself in Washington’s Skagit Valley in springtime, surrounded by field after field of blooming tulips, all bright and beautiful and bursting with colour.
Suddenly, it all makes sense. Suddenly, you understand why tulips are considered a symbol of paradise.
Although the Skagit Valley is just and hour or two south of Vancouver, it can seem a world away. It is a region of mountains, sea and fertile farmland, dotted with charming villages that seem, somehow, older and quainter than our own. Each has its own personality, whether it’s artsy La Conner or Anacortes on the coast, busy Burlington or Bellingham inland, or rugged Sedro Woolley or Concrete at the gateway to North Cascades National Park.
Any time is a good time to go. This is a year-round paradise for outdoors enthusiasts and art lovers alike. It has great shopping and fine dining, charming inns and plenty of wineries, breweries and distilleries to explore.
But best the time to visit is over the next few weeks, during the annual Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.
Throughout April, the valley will be busy with street festivals, art shows, barbecues, petting zoos and all manner of community events. The main attraction, though, is the tulips themselves.
Already, things are in bloom. The year’s first crop is daffodils, the bright yellow sign that spring is on its way. Next come the tulips, their petals unfurling to announce the arrival of spring and the beginning of the festival. They’re followed by the graceful irises that have inspired so many artists.
Of course, flowers aren’t the only thing grown here, but more tulip, iris and daffodil bulbs are produced here than in any other county in the United States.
The festival doesn’t have one main location for tulip viewing. Rather, it is designed as a driving or cycling tour that takes you past the many flower farms, where millions of bulbs bloom on more than 100 acres.
(Note, though, that the tulip fields change year after year due to crop rotation. In other words, don’t use last year’s map or you’ll spend a lot of time staring at dirt.)
The tulips are grown by two major producers: RoozenGaarde / Washington Bulb Co. and Tulip Town. Their fields are centrally located in a 15-mile ( 24- kilometre) triangle bordered by Highway 20, the Skagit River and the Swinomish River Channel, making it easy to see most of them in a day.
If you don’t feel like meandering along country roads, though, both RoozenGaarde and Tulip Town also have glorious displays of tulips in their show gardens.
As you roll along the highway, you’ll pass field after field of tulips. Red, yellow, white, pink, dark purple, striped, variegated. You’ll be tempted to take some home, and the good news is, you can bring tulips across the border, though you’ll have to wait until fall for the bulbs.
Paradise, it seems, is just a short drive away, and fits neatly into a vase. Best of all, it needn’t cost 10 times your salary.