Two big tulip growers in the Skagit Valley welcome visitors and we quickly found our favorite: RoozeGaarde. A $5 admission fee gives wandering privileges through beautifully planted gardens. The views are stunning.
RooseGaarde has been in business for nearly 60 years and is run by the five sons of the original owners, immigrants from – where else? – Holland. The gardens are replanted each fall with nearly 250,000 flower bulbs, a process that takes about 10 weeks. Their catalog claims they are the biggest bulb grower in the U.S.
A local innkeeper told us that with bus tours the gardens can see up to 15,000 visitors a day, making the mantra “get there early” good advice. Despite the steady flows of people everyone we met here was uniformly friendly and courteous.
There are plenty of fields for driveby viewing so it’s not necessary to pay to view. But this is a great spot to see labeled specimens, get planting ideas, and experience the wow factor of professional designs.
So colorful and pretty!
So many tulips – so little time – gorgeous photos!!
That first photo – looks like a blue waterfall coursing through the flowers.
What scenes you’ve captured. I really have never seen anything like this. And the colors are so radiant. Which means your camera exposure was right on. And you had a nice day ’cause the blue of the sky complements all the other colors!
I think I’ll put my tu-lips together and whistle a happy tune for the rest of the day!
The top shot is almost unbelievable! How very amazing. WOW!
hihi, from holland! 🙂
last year i was in the brooklyn botanic garden, but just a few days ago i discovered i somehow lost all those photos.. i had one with a field of only blue flowers and it was so pretty too… 🙁
This looks fantastic, Kay. I went to the Netherlands the first week in anticipation of seeing tulips and other spring bulbs like this, but it was so cold that there were no tulips or daffodils or any of the other expected flowering bulbs. I should have gone to the Pacific Northwest!
Love the design of their flower beds. I’ve always wanted to visit Holland, Michigan during their tulip festival. Wonder what the weather is like there right now?