SKAGIT VALLEY
by Hemlata Vasavaday

To enjoy acres of vibrant-colored tulips, nature’s rainbow on earth, one need not take a plane trip to Holland. All a person has to do is to take a scenic drive to La Conner in Skagit County, Washington State. The colorful blooms are approximately 60 miles north of Seattle and 70 miles south of Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada.

Every April, thousand of tourists visit the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival to see the 700 acres of nature’s red, white, magenta, yellow and pink ribbons draped across the ground. The festival has caught the attention of most major newspapers, radio and television, even CNN. In her travel guidebook, 1000 Places To See Before You Die, Patricia Schultz featured the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. Last year, the Washington Association of Cities and the Washington Festival and Events Association picked the April event as the top festival in the state.
The tulips, daffodils and irises have attracted tourists for years, and the bulbs from Skagit Valley are exported all over the nation and to many countries, including Holland. Some locals have heard an anecdote from a columnist in Seattle who helped consumers track problems. A woman called him and said she had ordered the tulip bulbs from Holland, but hadn’t received them. When the columnist called the company in Holland, they apologized for the delay, saying that their shipment hadn’t arrived from the Skagit Valley! Still, local bulb farmers admit that Holland has the best technology for research and development of new varieties, and they often depend on their Dutch
counterparts to develop hybrids.
Although Holland is the seat of tulips, the flowers originated in...

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