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24 posts tagged nature
Oregon has a love affair with flowers
Have you ever seen tens of acres of blooming flowers? It quiets you. It can almost bring you to your knees in awe at the vast numbers of plants. Each variety creates its own long stripe of color in the fields. The tulips at the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm and then in Washington’s Holland American Bulb Farm, Inc. were breathtaking. Last week I wound my way through the magical Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden in the Eastmoreland area of Portland.
As I rounded the bend on NE Quinaby Road yesterday I was stunned to see 200 acres of iris blooming in fields of North Salem. Nestled within these acres of Schreiner’s Iris Gardens is their 10 acre display garden which is open to the public. This area not only shows off their beautiful bearded iris, it also includes a huge collection of other flowers of different colors and heights. Poppies, columbine, alliums, lupines are all showing off their colors.
I can give you a few pictures of these experiences but what you’re not getting is the perfumy scent of the flowers or the sound the blossoms make as they make as they bump into each other in the breeze.
Maybe my title should have been, “tango-mango has a love affair with Oregon’s flowers”.
The Pudding River near Woodburn, Oregon
Orchard near Hubbard, Oregon
Trees
Near Woodburn, Oregon
Tulips in the Pacific Northwest
The tulip fields were so beautiful at The Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm last week I persuaded my husband to accompany me to different tulip farm early Saturday morning. We got in the car and drove up Interstate-5 to Woodland, Washington. Despite the 40 minute drive (or so) it was just after 9am when we arrived.
Holland American Bulb Farms, Inc. felt completely different than the first. It felt more like a working farm; a place where people wander through the test field to consider flowers they might want in their own gardens. When we visited, there were no lemonade stands, no craft booths or ice cream. The production fields were off limits to walk through, but we could stand and gaze at the wide expanses of growing flowers to be harvested for bulbs. Being only two of the four people there at the time, It was so quiet we could hear the click-clack of the waxy tulip blossoms as they touched each other in the slow breeze.
Visiting places like these provides more than just an opportunity to take pictures. Whether walking on the quiet Oregon beaches, driving through the Columbia River Gorge to the waterfalls or seeing the grapevines grow in the valley, you come away with a greater sense of self. Even after all these years, the more I see, the more I want to see.
Come visit.
Oregon tulips
If you’re a follower you have seen many, many posts showing off the beauty of rural Oregon. Each season brings a wide variety of colors and patterns to enjoy.
Last week I returned home to Portland just in time to catch the end of the tulip season. While I should have been emptying my suitcase and catching up on laundry, I headed south early Friday morning to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival, near Woodburn, Oregon. I was there at 9am when they opened their gates, and as I walked towards the 40 acres of flower fields I was awestruck by their beauty. It was a quiet, sunny morning and untold thousands of colorful tulips were lit up in the sunshine.
The scene was so spectacular we visited another tulip farm in the state of Washington the next day. I’ll post pictures of that gorgeous farm tomorrow.
Hostas
They’re growing inches every day.
Dandelion
Raindrops on apple blossoms
Honey.
Using the honey stick, here’s a yummy sandwich!
