Tuesday, April 18, 2017

We made it to the Tulip Festival

Me and Judy
Yesterday morning Judy and I headed to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, on as late a date as I've ever been, and lo and behold, we were at the beginning of the bloom, if you can believe it. The past two years we had an early spring, and in 2015 the flowers were about where they are now by the end of March! By the end of April they were all gone. Not so this year.
Daffodils amongst the tulips
Judy was especially anxious to see all the different varieties of daffodils, and she hoped to find just the right ones to plant in her garden for next spring. You can see how beautiful the tulip and daffodil fields are right at this moment. We wandered in happy enjoyment, appreciating the incredible variety that the RoozenGaarde gardens provided us (for a fee).
More tulips, hyacinths, and trees in bloom
Although there is another outfit, Tulip Town, along with lots of fields of tulips planted, I have always gone to RoozenGaarde and gotten all the eye candy I could handle. After wandering for awhile in the gardens, we walked into the back fields to enjoy the seemingly endless fields of tulips.
Pretty red tulips with mountains in the background
We had partly cloudy skies, which actually made it easier to photograph the beauty all around us, and it also added interesting cloud formations. Every once in awhile we'd have both sun and clouds making for some enjoyable pictures.
Not quite open
It seemed like the darker colored tulips were late bloomers, but one thing the designers like to do is mix them up, early, mid- and late-bloomers all together in the gardens, and my only regret about going yesterday is missing the moment when the vast majority of the fields would be at their peak. It was a very small regret, though.
An assortment of colors
I'm not sure why I like this picture so much, but I notice that my eyes were drawn to this assortment of colors and varieties all mixed together. Plus there was that huge field of daffodils behind them that added even more delight to the old eyeballs. By the time we left around noon (after three hours of wandering), I was astounded at the sheer numbers of people who had arrived on a Monday to see the flowers. I would never have been able to get pictures without hordes of people if we had waited.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing the tulips as much as we did. Spring has rolled around once again and my heart is filled with joy at all the beauty surrounding us. I love this place!
:-)

19 comments:

  1. for a little old prairie boy, I'm always amazed at these huge fields of tulips. Huge wheat fields I can understand. Huge tulip fields...I'm not so sure.

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  2. I love seeing these gardens each year - and am so very grateful you take us along.

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  3. Such a beautiful show of colour! I love the yellows especially! So worth a visit!

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  4. Thanks for the bloom report! We are trying to figure out which day to go to the Skagit Valley. We would like a non-weekend day that isn't pouring down rain. I think we'll take our chances early next week. Then we'll spend a night or two at the Whidbey cabin.

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  5. Spring has sprung! We have lots of daffodils around here in the northeast right now as well.

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  6. Beautiful! I am quite taken with that last photo too, the yellow I think! And those Red Tulips...just stunning, what a fun day for you! :)

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  7. Oh my gracious! This brings back such lovely memories! I wish we were back there again. Your photos are awesome, DJan!

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  8. Just beautiful! Thanks for sharing the photos. It brightened my day :-)

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  9. What a gorgeous sight. Wish I lived close enough to visit.

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  10. What a beautiful sight! I love your last photo of the multi-colored tulips. We have a large tulip farm near Portland in the town of Woodburn. I really need to get up there soon!

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  11. I love it when you PNW'ers let us come with you to the tulip fields. It is a sight we would never see with out your help. Thanks.

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  12. Beautiful! One of the other photo bloggers I follow has featured this area in her posts. We have a tulip festival here in May.

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  13. I love the variety of colors, too. Gorgeous! Nice pic of the two of you. :)

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  14. How beautiful! Thank you for letting me tag along virtually.

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  15. Now the daffodils would draw me in!! I love 'em so. What a super tour you've sahed.

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  16. Beautiful pictures. I have red tulips in my yard this year, first time, and they make me smile.

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  17. It really is gorgeous. We forget how lucky we are to be able to just go and see such beautiful sights. The purple ones are of interest to me as I am now curious why they bloom later.

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  18. The flowers are truly magnificent. Thanks for giving us this virtual tour.

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