Waiting for peak tulip bloom in Skagit County? Finally, it’s just about to start

The weather has made us wait for it this year, but the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival finally has bloomed.

Tulip Town had two tulip varieties in full bloom, and seven others in partial bloom, on Thursday, April 13.

More color is expected by the weekend, RoozenGaarde’s website states.

“Our fields are at about 20% bloom right now with more color appearing each day! While mother nature is the ultimate decision maker of when the tulips bloom, we are anticipating peak bloom to be around April 22nd this season,” Tulip Town’s Instagram post states.

Although the festival annually runs from April 1-30, tulips bloom at various times. “Mother nature determines when the tulips bloom. Some years the tulips bloom the last week of March, and in other years they may not bloom until the second week of April. Also, different varieties of tulips bloom earlier and later,” a Skagit County tourism website states.

Tulip Town posts daily field checks on Instagram to show visitors what to expect the field to look like each day.

“We do have several varieties that are showing color each day at Tulip Town and they are spectacular! The warmer the weather and the more sunshine, we will continue to see in the field. We plant early-, mid- and late-varieties in the fields to do our best to have color throughout the month,” Kristen Keltz, CEO of Spinach Bus Ventures, the owners and operators of Tulip Town wrote in an email to The Bellingham Herald.

There are four main tulip farms in Skagit County to visit during the tulip festival: Tulip Town, RoozenGaarde, Garden Rosalyn and Tulip Valley Farms and each farm offers something different to experience, from a variety of blooming fields to nighttime laser shows. Check out The Herald’s tulip farm guide to see hours, prices and entry information.

The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival website posts tulip blooming updates to help visitors plan when to visit various farms and areas in Mount Vernon.

RoozenGaarde tulip farm also has a blooming map that shows which fields across Skagit County are currently in bloom, what color tulips they have, and flower varieties.

“We are early in the spring bloom season, but our first-to-flower tulip varieties are looking quite brilliant. More and more color will show with each passing day. We expect to be much fuller with color by the weekend,” RoozenGaarde’s website states.

As Skagit County’s lack of recent sunshine has seemed to delay the tulips from blooming, the National Weather Service forecasts more cloudy and rainy weather from Friday, April 14, through Wednesday, April 19.

The Washington State Department of Transportation also advises drivers heading to the fields to check Twitter for road closures and follow the Washington State Department of Transportation North traffic Twitter for local updates.