MOUNT VERNON — So it’s the first weekend of the annual Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, but many of the colorful bulb fields have been blooming for awhile already.
This year’s early spring means you shouldn’t wait too much longer to tour the tulips. At some point, for disease control reasons, the farmers chop off all of the flowers’ pretty heads.
If you drive north this Easter weekend, be sure to pack your patience. Even if it rains, plenty of folks will be out to see the acres of flowers.
Also, you’ll want to bring an umbrella and your barn boots. The mud paths in front of the fields are still squishy.
The tulip festival runs through April 30 with a slew of activities in Mount Vernon, Burlington, Sedro-Woolley, La Conner, Edison and Anacortes. Lots of information, including a list of events and a field map, is available at www.tulipfestival.org.
Most people like to take the Conway exit off I-5, but it’s just as easy to exit in downtown Mount Vernon and head west.
The first thing to do is visit the farmers.
Stop at the Roozen family’s Washington Bulb Co./ RoozenGaarde at 15867 Beaver Marsh Road (www.tulips.com) or the DeGoede family’s Skagit Valley Bulb Farm/Tulip Town at 15002 Bradshaw Road (tuliptown.com). Leave your dog in your vehicle.
Admission is $5 but free for children at both places. Order bulbs, buy a bouquet, pick up a free guide, check out the display gardens and take tons of photos.
Then use your RoozenGaarde admission ticket to visit the bulb company’s big fields of tulips on other nearby roads. Otherwise be prepared to pay $5 to park.
The sheriff’s deputies will be out in force issuing citations to people who don’t obey the no-parking signs on the shoulders of the roads. Another important piece of traffic advice is that some of the valley’s roads have 50 mph speed limits, and that’s how fast the locals tend to drive.
Local people are kind and helpful unless you forget that this festival is happening in their front yards.
For the least amount of traffic and the best light for your photos, visit in the morning or in the evening. High-noon photos tend to wash out the amazing floral color. And go on a weekday if you can.
One of the best things about the festival is its focus on art, especially landscape paintings. This year’s tulip festival poster artist Teresa Saia plans to sign prints at RoozenGaarde on Easter.
The tulip fields inspire a lot of artists. Keep your eyes open, there are art show signs everywhere.
One that isn’t listed in the festival guide is a gem, Rexville Grange Art Show, featuring a collection of works by some of the best in the region. Artists from Snohomish County and Camano Island who show there include Marguerite Goff (ceramics), Janet Hamilton and Molly LeMaster (paintings), Kathy Hastings (painted photography), Mary Simmons (glass art) and Lucinda VanValkenberg (hand-turned wood).
Located at 1929 Rexville Grange Road between Conway and La Conner, the show features fine art and crafts by 29 artists, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. April 10 through April 19. Turn off Best Road at the Rexville Grocery, the grange is on the left about a block away.
Finally, if you buy a bouquet of tulips, be sure to cut an inch off the stems when you get home and place them in water right away. Most bouquets last more than a week.
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @galefiege.
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