We are so fortunate to be able to visit the annual Tulip Festival in the Skagit Valley in Washington state! This year, it was held for the 28th time. Multicolorful fields of tulips are mesmerizing!
To see more varieties, we visited the RoozenGaarde display garden (3.5 acres filled with almost a quarter of a million of spring-flowering bulbs).
Where else to enjoy the tulips if not in the garden of the largest tulip bulb grower in the U.S.! By the way, the Roozen family business is the largest in the world in growing tulips, irises and daffodils.
What struck me the most was the variety: the mix of colors, forms, shapes and sizes.
Cup-, bowl-, goblet-, star-shaped... Single and double...
One-color and multi-colored...
Clicking on the pictures will make them BIG
Subdued in color and bright and bold...
Highlighted by the sun and glowing...
Tulip razmataz...
Pure, innocently white:
I loved these flowers a lot:
especially when they were blown by the wind:
These stars made me smile:
What a contrast with classic cup-like blooms!
Aren't they a bit childish?
Daffodils had finished their show in the fields, but not here, in the display garden.
The orange color is not among my favorites, I liked these:
I also liked the lemon-yellow color on the top of the next picture:
And, again, the fields:
The old, moss-covered building looks great in such a surrounding:
One thousand acres of blooming fields belong to the RoozenGaarde company, but there are others... The scene is unbelievably beautiful. 
Add the mountains, some of them snow-capped.... Spectacular!
The next photo is one of my favorites from this trip.
To see the names of the tulips, go to the RoozenGaarde catalogue.
Enjoy!
To be continued with more pictures.
My previous years' posts about this Festival:
***Copyright 2011 TatyanaS
Oh, how lovely. Very enchanting pictures... What wonderful rich color!
ReplyDeleteWow! Great pictures and it must have been truly amazing to be there in person. Did you feel as if you were in Holland? Thanks for posting all these beauties.
ReplyDeleteTatyana, what a relief to see a post for gardeners to enjoy, the tulips and photographs are beautiful. I often think as gardeners, we have an inbuilt affinity to our world and the respect which we owe it. But do we really have to bang on about how more green we are compared to the next person (i dont mean you) for goodness sake lighten up.
ReplyDeleteI ditto Sandra: Your "Enchanting" pictures are to die for. The only thing better is to be there in person. I bet you brought a catalog home and we'll see some of these in your garden next year! :)
ReplyDeleteTatyana its seems we have a bit of Holland right here in the States to enjoy...you are so lucky to be close by...absolutely breathtaking photos...
ReplyDeleteSandra, thank you!
ReplyDeleteMasha, thank you! I've never been to Holland... but I understand what you mean. Many WA tulip growers are Dutch, originally, and they brought their traditions, culture and yes - bulbs!
Alistair, thank you. I hear what you are saying!
Grace, thank you! We got lucky with weather on Saturday. Originally, we planned to go there last Monday, but someone told us that the tulips were just starting showing their color. There would be less people during working days, of course. But it wasn't bad. As for growing tulips in my garden.... what to do with deers and squirrels?
ReplyDeleteDonna, thanks!!! It's very close to us, less than 2 hours driving.
For some reason I didn't realize we blog in the same are of the world! Beautiful tulips, I've only seen the fields of daffodils and now you've shown me what I'm missing. Beautiful.
ReplyDeletebakingbarb, hello neighbor. I am going to your blog right now.
ReplyDeleteOh thank you for posting such beautiful pics of this years event! I haven't been to the Skagit Festival in a few years and I dearly miss it. I also love how they feature a local artist yearly to create their posters.
ReplyDeleteWow! What a spectacular sight. It must just overwhelm the eyes when seeing them in the fields.Thank for sharing the colorful showing.
ReplyDeleteWow! Tulips don't do well here, so seeing something like this is like a dream. Love those stars!
ReplyDeleteWow! Incredible! Total tulip overload (in a good way). I recognize a few, but would love to have them all.
ReplyDeleteThis is a sight I have to travel to see because they don't grow in my climate. Wonderful pics!
ReplyDeleteTatyana,
ReplyDeleteWhat a treat to see all of these beautiful tulips!
Eileen
Tatyana,
ReplyDeleteWhat a place to visit and the timing is superb! I could not pick a favorite I liked all of the photos! Wish I'd been there.
Amazing. How I missed visiting tulip fields in Japan when they were in season. So many colourful varieties which I admire very much. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThank you everyone! I know, it's a bit overwhelming to see so many blooms, but the place has grassed areas and some benches to sit and relax. The blooming fields are not side by side, you need to drive in between. There are great nurseries there, and the towns are also great. So, my point is - there are breaks which help you not to get toooo overwhelmed!
ReplyDeleteMust have been amazing to attend this ahow. I really enjoyed your pics.
ReplyDeleteTatyana, I thought you had to travel to the Netherlands to see a display like this. Thank you for highlighting this US grower and the beauty of their fields. Carolyn
ReplyDeleteI can onlt imagine how it felt to see all of these fields in person...breathtaking! That photo with the moss covered buildings should be framed and hanging in your home.
ReplyDeleteTatyana, It’s a very rainy Spring day so I thought it would be a good time to check in on you and the other Blogs I follow. Can not be out in the dirt so I am here at the computer. The tulip photos are absolutely beautiful. Really wonderful. I have only a few tulips up near the house because the deer seem to enjoy them too so there are not too many that make it for viewing. But I figure the deer need to "enjoy" them in their own way so I let them be. I recently posted some of the Spring blooms here at Gardens at Waters East, Aconite, dwarf Iris, Crocus, Scilla. Slowly Spring will be here. Jack
ReplyDeleteabsolutely beautiful, thank you for sharing your lovely photos!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the tulip fix ~ simply amazing! So many different varieties and colors. I love, love, love the picture of the tulip field with the old barn in the background.
ReplyDeleteWhat day were you there? Must've been Friday or Saturday for that much sun. I was there Friday and would've enjoyed meeting you. Interesting to see how you so differently "saw" with your camera the same things I "saw" with mine. The flowers look so familiar--I know where you were standing, etc.--and yet they also look so different through your lens. Great shots.
ReplyDeleteWhat an incredible sight! I LOVE your pic of the moss covered building in the field of tulips. The scene is completely charming. When and how do they dig all these tulips up for sale?
ReplyDeleteThank you, my friends! It looks like we have a winner - the picture with a moss-covered barn!
ReplyDeleteKelly, Saturday was our day! Friday, I guess, was less croudy.
Tatyana,
ReplyDeleteI cannot thank you enough for sharing those photos! I never really believed there were fields of tulips like that. It is so amazing! I looked through your photos 20 times. I never knew! Thank you for opening my mind and giving me something new to put on my bucket list! Come sit on my porch anytime. Bring a blanket as it is cold in Sou Dacota:)