TULIP FIELDS at Holland America Flower Farm are brilliant with color three weeks earlier than usual due to warm spring weather.
CAROL AND MERL BIEKER, of Vancouver, of Vancouver select their favorite tulip blooms from the picking field at Holland America Flower Farm.
JOAN LEWIS, of Vancouver, is shown here filling her bucket at the picking garden at Holland America Flower Farm.
WOODLAND – Unusually warm days have brought a profusion of blooms to gardens in the area, and tulips are no exception.
At Holland America Flower Gardens in Woodland, tulips are blooming three weeks earlier than usual, and fields opened March 13 for visitors to pick tulips and explore the dozens of varieties on display in the show garden.
Vast fields of brilliantly colored tulips, which will be harvested for bulbs and cut flowers, are a short distance down Pekin Road past the farm.
The picking garden is a rainbow of colors and varieties of tulips. Joan Lewis of Vancouver, was the first visitor of the season, and she was prepared for the picking garden with a bucket and shears. She said she has friends and neighbors in mind who she wants to share tulips with.
The Gift Shop at Holland America Bulb Farm sells cut flowers as well as a wide variety of garden themed décor, food items, and seeds, and is open Mon.–Fri., 9 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sat.-Sun., 10 a.m.–4 p.m. Visitors are welcome in the fields outside of business hours, and an honor box is available for payments. Those planning to take home some cut tulips from the picking garden should bring their own bucket and shears.
Merl and Carol Bieker, of Vancouver, were visiting the flower gardens for the first time. They recently relocated to Vancouver from California, where Carol said she missed growing bulbs like tulips. The couple originated from Michigan and Wisconsin where bulbs are widely grown, and the tulip farm brought memories of home. They went home with a bouquet of tulips, along with lilies from Holland America’s farm in Arroyo Grande, CA.
The annual Woodland Tulip Festival will be held April 11-12 and April 18-19 at Holland America Flower Garden, located at 1066 S. Pekin Rd., Woodland. The festival features local artisans and food vendors and, of course, tulips. BBQ pork and Philly Cheesesteaks, with strawberry cheesecake for dessert, will be available to purchase from America’s Family Diner.
Runners and walkers will have a chance to enjoy the fields of flowers on foot at the 5k Tulip Trot on April 4, or the Blooms to Brews Marathon on April 12. Photos of children under age 2 can be entered in the farm’s “Cutest Baby Contest.”
Holland America’s Gift Shop has partnered with local businesses to introduce several new products this year. Bethany Winery of Ridgefield bottles two varieties of wine, a Pinot Noir and a Riesling, under the Holland America label designed by artist Debbie Littlefield. Raindrop Coffee Roasters in Ridgefield produces a special roast of coffee for the Gift Shop under the Holland America Label, and you can now pick up a “cake bomb” by Killa Bites for your sweet tooth.
Holland America Flower Gardens is a family owned business, founded in 1980 by Benno and Klazina Dobbe when they emigrated to Woodland from Holland. Benno is still involved in every aspect of the business, and is now joined by siblings, children and grandchildren.
A second farm was added in California in 1996 to grow warm weather flowers, such as lilies and freesias. Holland America is now one of the largest cut flower growers on the West Coast.
