AdventuresNW
On April 1st, the Skagit Valley will once again begin its month-long celebration of floral radiance in what has become North America’s largest Tulip Festival. The festival runs through April and features numerous display gardens, art shows, a street fair, barbecues, a parade, and acres and acres of luminous tulip blossoms.
The Tulip Festival has become an iconic Pacific Northwest event, attracting flower aficionados from around the globe.
This beloved event’s origins can be traced back to 1883 when George Gibbs settled on Orcas Island. The transplanted Englishman had a botanical bent and planted orchards of apples and hazelnuts on his new homestead. He purchased $5 worth of tulip bulbs and raised a bumper crop of the flowers, which until then had been the exclusive providence of growers in Holland. By 1905, with some help from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), his crop had grown to 15,000 bulbs. The USDA established its own 10-acre tulip test garden near Bellingham, which eventually gave birth to the Bellingham Tulip Festival in 1920.
But Whatcom County proved a more difficult location for raising tulips. After several years in which the bulbs froze, the festival was discontinued, and the growers moved south to Skagit County.
In 1950, a sixth-generation tulip grower from Holland named William Roozen started a tulip farm on Beaver Marsh Road outside Mount Vernon. In 1955, he purchased the Washington Bulb Company, an established grower of tulips, daffodils, and iris.
In 1984, the Mount Vernon Chamber of Commerce launched the first Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, a weekend-long event that, over the years, has grown into the month-long celebration that we know today.
Roozengaarde, as William Roozen’s farm is known, remains a centerpiece, offering a five-acre display garden with more than 1 million bulbs planted each year by hand, 50 acres of tulip and daffodil fields, and a gift shop.
But there’s more to the Tulip Festival than Roozengaarde. Tulip Town, Garden Rosalyn, and Tulip Valley Farms also offer botanical feasts for the senses. Salmon barbecues, organized by the Kiwanis Club, are held every weekend in April, as is English Tea at Willowbrook Manor. The festival’s annual Tulip Parade commands center stage in La Conner on April 6, and Mount Vernon celebrates with a Street Fair on the weekend of April 19, featuring more than 140 artisan vendors, live music, food trucks, and children’s activities.
But with all this activity, perhaps the best way to savor this beguiling natural spectacle is to find some quiet time out in the fields as the sun goes down, rendering the valley in pastel hues. There’s a lot to be said for taking the time to stop and smell the flowers.
More info: tulipfestival.org
