Rain adds to joy blooming at Tulip Town

Thousands of people of all ages visit Tulip Town every day. By 11 a.m. on a cold, blustery and rainy Monday morning this week the parking lot was filling up and hundreds of people were touring the tulip fields behind Tulip Town farm on Bradshaw Road. Tom and Jeanette DeGoede have 22 acres planted this year, their 58th year of governing Tulip Town.

This day Jeanette DeGoede paid special attention to 106 second graders visiting from Mount Vernon’s Little Mountain School. Her very personal tour through the indoor display area offered more information than they could possibly remember. They probably did not understand her “I imported my husband from Holland” remark.

Among the specifics she imparted:

Colors range from black to white; among the 11 different kinds they grow are double ruffling, fringed, lily flowering and traditional round; there are three growing seasons: early-, mid- and late; and, perhaps no surprise: tulips love water: they will stretch and will grow two or more additional inches in water.

Goede walked slowly up and down the display hall, with its two murals: the Skagit Valley, on the south side, drew shouts of approval when students recognized Mount Baker, after she pointed it out.

The north side mural depicts Tom DeGoede’s Holland homeland, complete with horses in boats and a scale replica of his boyhood home. DeGoede closed the circle, telling the students that a lot of cabbage is grown there and all the cabbage seed comes from Mount Vernon. “The Skagit Valley is an amazing valley,” she told them. “We have an amazing agricultural community. You kids can be really proud of it.”

Stopping at the flower maid figure, she pulled the door it is painted on open to reveal the cooler warehouse, with staff working in it. The students “oohed” in approving surprise. She led them in.

DeGoede pitched her preference for buying potted tulips, a better value than stems, whose flowers will die and become compost. “The advantage of a pot, you get the bulb, too,” she proclaimed.

DeGoede took the classes through the village, with its food stand, kite and poster shops, face painting booth and Tulip Town Bank – an ATM. At her last stop, where grown-ups could buy flower and vegetable starts, she told them they were the best class ever. Besides shouting for themselves, they gave the 80ish year farmer an enthusiastic hurrah.

Out in the fields, Claire Rode were among the increasing number of people coming to walk through among the tulips, undeterred by the weather. “Rain. We expected it. It doesn’t make the flowers any less beautiful,” she remarked. Her group of five came up from Seattle in a van for their first tulip festival.

Off to the side, Mason, a seasonal employee from Anacortes, having noticed there were no blue tulips, was inserting them into the poem he was writing.