Skagit Valley daffodil fields
— — yellow fields in the weeks before the tulips.
Not only on a wall.
“Three or four weeks before the tulips, the same fields north of Mount Vernon turn yellow. Daffodils run in long rows across the flat valley floor, with the Cascade foothills to the east and the Olympics off to the west. They open in late February and hold through mid-March, depending on the year, and most are commercial cut-flower fields belonging to the same growers who plant the tulips. The bloom is quieter than April's, the traffic lighter, and the light most often a mild grey. from the studio
Skagit Valley daffodil fields, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The daffodil fields sit in the Skagit Valley of northwest Washington, roughly an hour north of Seattle and centred around the towns of Mount Vernon and La Conner in Skagit County. The valley floor is rich alluvial farmland built by the Skagit River, sheltered by the Cascade Range to the east and the Olympics across Puget Sound to the west. Commercial bulb growing began in the area in the 1940s and the valley is now one of the largest producers of tulip, daffodil, and iris bulbs in the United States, with most fields concentrated west of Interstate 5.
The daffodils run roughly from late February into mid-March, a few weeks ahead of the tulips. Bloom dates shift year to year depending on winter temperatures, and the growers post field-level updates as the season opens. The flowers themselves are commercial stock grown for the cut market, so individual fields are cut down once they peak; the colour moves across the valley as the harvest moves. Most years a few hundred acres of yellow are visible from the back roads around Mount Vernon and Conway in any given week.
Unlike the April tulip festival, the daffodil bloom is mostly informal. Most fields are private working farmland; the courtesy is to pull off onto the shoulder, stay on the road edge, and not walk into the rows. The main display gardens at RoozenGaarde, west of Mount Vernon, usually open by early March with daffodils planted alongside the early tulip beds. Weekend traffic on La Conner Whitney Road and Best Road can be heavy by late morning even in March; an early start in soft light is the simpler day.