Christianson's Nursery

Whenever we visit the Skagit Valley we stop at Christianson's Nursery. It is old, charming, and has cool plants. And it's right there among the valley fields.

 This wisteria in a pot was already blooming.

 Lots of wonderful perennials.

 Black pansies

 Wonderful blue of gentian and corydalis 

 I'm always drawn to the heucheras.  

 Spines on an agave are backlit by the sun.

 I love these wonderfully spiney things, but they do require greenhouse protection here in our cold, wet winters. 

 There is a great little gift shop. All of the Easter stuff was 50% off, but I resisted. 

 We did pick out a few fancy leaf geraniums, and Tom was about to add a brugmansia to our box, when we discovered it had already been filled up!

 After petting her, I scooped the cat out and we got her another box just for her.  She was content. 

 Pots and palms.

 This old schoolhouse is part of the nursery grounds. Often used for art displays, it was closed today.

 I love this espaliered apple edging. 

 We were really tempted by these faux bois planters, but they did not have drain holes and we didn't know if they would hold up outside. Plus they were pricey. 

Christianson's was where we spent our first hour in the valley, before we headed across the valley to find the tulips. 

Tulip Time #2 - Tulip Town

There are two major commercial enterprises in the Skagit Valley that charge admission fees for up close and personal viewing of the tulips, RoozenGaarde and Tulip Town.  As you saw in the last post, RoozenGaarde does an extensive display garden. Some years there are planted fields adjacent to the display gardens and sometime the growing fields are scattered in other locations. Bulb crops are rotated every year on a three or more year rotation.

Tulip Town doesn't have the extensive displays and has a bit more of a circus atmosphere, but they always seem to have growing fields located very near to their facility. This year they were right next to the parking lot. Because we did not get out into the fields in other locations, we paid our fee for the opportunity here. The results were spectacular. 

With the top layer of the heavy soil dried out, we were able to walk around the whole field, taking photos as we went. Each progression reveals another color of the tulip rainbow.

Pickers were out in the field cutting buds for the cut flower market. They do it sparingly enough to not impact the "show".

Tom used his phone for some closeups. 

As we swung around to the back side of the field the mountains were once again our backdrop. 

Skagit County produces more tulip, daffodil and iris bulbs than any other county in the country. The bulbs are an important crop in the agricultural region. 

And we are fortunate here to be so close by and to have the pleasure of watching them bloom and grow. I pay them back by ordering my bulbs from them each year. Ours are blooming too!