Tiptoe Through The Tulips………….

Wooden Shoe Farm

Tiptoe through the window,
By the window, that is where I’ll be,
Come tiptoe through the tulips with me.

Oh, tiptoe from the garden,
By the garden of the willow tree,
And tiptoe through the tulips with me.

Knee deep in flowers we’ll stray,
We’ll keep the showers away,
And if I kiss you in the garden, in the moonlight
Will you pardon me?
And tiptoe through the tulips with me ~ Tiny Tim

If you remember this old song you must have a few gray hairs too but it sure does reminder me of a recent afternoon of tiptoeing through a tulip field.

Last Wednesday April 8, 2010, was one of those rare “dry days” this spring so I took advantage for the break in the April showers to visit The Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm.

Field of View

Wow, is what you’ll say when you see 40 acres of tulips in bloom. The colors and endless varieties are almost overwhelming at first. The Iverson family began growing tulips in 1974. The first tulips belonged to Dr. Holman who would ship part of the bulbs to Indiana every year for forcing. When he retired in the late 1970’s the current owner bought a few acres of bulbs.

By the early 80’s they had over 15 acres and needed to broaden the market base. Seeing this as an opportunity, in 1983 they started the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm.

Wooden Shoes

In the first few years they printed up black and white order sheets and sales were slow. Then, in 1986, they opened our fields for Easter weekend. The rest, you may say, is history.

Now they open our fields for an entire month and have greatly expanded our operation to include taking bulb orders, cut flowers, potted tulips, a gift shop, other plants, and all sorts of food and activities on weekends. This years Tulip Fest runs from March 25 to April 25^th.

So what was it like?

As Far As You Can See

The field is in the back of the property and in the front is an gift shop, food, retail fresh cut flowers and rides for the children. I skipped the shops and headed straight for the field.

There’s the Windmill

40 acres of tulips is amazing. Not all the flowers were in bloom but there were few species that were past their bloom. At first it’s a bit overwhelming. Near where you park there was a Windmill, picnic area, some old steam tractors on display and more information in a large tent.

Old Steam Tractors

John Deer

I didn’t get a count but there must be 80-100 different varieties in the Wooden Shoe Bulb Catalog and at least two-thirds of them must have been in bloom.

Here are just a few of the ones I saw:

Apricot Parrot Tulip

Atlantis

Pimpernel

Greenland

Of course there are a variety of mixed bulbs and that was very colorful on their own.

All Season Mix

The farm had a tractor pulled train that took children around the field. It was a good thing to as will all the rain this spring the field is pretty muddy in places. The children were all smiles and looked like they were having fun.

The Tulip Train

Of course there as to be rules. Here are the rules of the field:

Please Don't Pick the Flowers

The Rules

There was a small platform to take panorama pictures of the field and I did take the time so shoot the one at the top of the page. On a clear day you would have had a wonderful view of Mt Hood but today the gray deadpan sky just didn’t cooperate. Maybe next time!

Wow, That's a View!

As you might have guessed I wasn’t the only one wandering around with a camera.

Get the Picture?

Say "Cheese"

Everywhere you look there is so much color and so much beauty. It’s really very hard to capture even a small amount of what you see when your right there. There are enough access rows that you can get a good look at every species that is in bloom. Be prepared to spend at least a couple of hours.

Monsella

Don Quichotte

Fidelio

Boccherini

Just watching the people interact with the flowers is fun. Everyone seem to have there own way to celebrate the beauty.

Walking with Dad

If you decide to go check this out yourself admission is $5 a car weekday and $10 on weekends. The website list a lot of activities that occur mostly on the weekends throughout the Fest. There is instructions of how to get to the farm from Woodburn on the website and there were plenty of signs to keep you from getting lost.

Enjoy the all these pictures and just consider it a bouquet of fresh tulips from me.

Jimmy

Rows of Colors

Judith Leyster

Enjoy!

Dennis