I had never gone tulip-picking before so I was excited to visit Eno River Farm for a new experience. What a unique place this farm was. The first thing to be seen was a giant troll, half-buried on top of a grassy hill. We should have walked up the hill to investigate because I later learned that you can climb up the troll’s leg or go inside of his head.
This picture illustrates how incredibly tall some of the trees down here are. And the people in the picture highlight just how big that troll is. But we were here for tulips! We passed an ice cream parlor with plenty of outdoor seating overlooking fields of organic strawberries and made a note to return with the grandchildren when strawberry-picking season arrives.
I cut three of them to take home
We went inside a nursery to pay for the tulips we cut and came out with an additional, but unplanned purchase, a big red potted geranium for the back deck. We’ll have to see if the squirrels and deer will leave it alone. In the meantime, I’m enjoying the simple beauty of these large tulips on the dining room table where I sit with my laptop most mornings.
how wonderful! I went with you there
So happy to have you along, Leelah! 🙂
That troll is huge! WOW!!!!! … but also interesting. Beautiful flowers for the season – but you didn’t stop for ice cream?
Nah, I’m lactose intolerant so it is sadly not an option for me. But we will be bringing the grandchildren there for ice cream soon!
Me too … so i must have pills handy.
Lucky you! I’m allergic to those pills. 🙁
Looks like such a fun place. And your tulip trio is beautiful.
Thank you, Susie. The tulips were great company for five days before the first petal fell.
What joy this brings to me this morning, Barbara. I am in need of Spring, I guess.
It looks like the tulips were all in raised planters, was that true? That would make it so much easier to plant the bulbs AND to cut the flowers; much less bending!
Thank you for this morning’s words and beautiful colors!
You’re welcome! Happy to share a little dose of spring with you, Janet! Yes, the tulips were in raised planters, but they weren’t high enough to prevent bending over to cut them. Since I had to squat to protect my back I couldn’t reach the ones in the middle of the planter. Thankfully there were enough pretty ones on the edges.
I want to let you know how much I appreciate your posts and photos but am having trouble making the comments work! Maybe this time😊
So sorry you were having problems leaving a comment, Edith. Sometimes WordPress gets awfully buggy and someone else was also having trouble, too. I’m so glad you didn’t give up and it finally worked! 🙂
I love pick-and-cut-your-own farms, esp. fun with kids. Rutgers has this tool for checking deer resistance. https://njaes.rutgers.edu/deer-resistant-plants/?search=geranium&submit=Search
I think what they eat depends on what their favorites are, which they browse first and then if those aren’t available, they move on to the next tier.
Thanks for the info link, Eliza. It was definitely an impulse buy and I didn’t start wondering about the deer until I go home. Did a quick internet search and found similar advice. Last year I bought a pot of mums and a squirrel buried nuts in the soil, making a big mess of it. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
How I love Tulips, Barbara! Ours aren’t quite ready to bloom yet, but with all the rain we’ve been having, they should be spectacular. I think your grandchildren will want to see that huge troll … and feast on ice cream!
I’m a tulip lover, too, Debbie! I don’t see any in the gardens down here because the deer are fond of eating them, so I wonder how this farm is managing to grow them so well. Hope yours will be as spectacular as you’re hoping for! Yup, definitely taking the grandchildren for ice cream and strawberry picking, and a climb on the troll.
What a fun place to visit Barbara – I like the idea of the half-buried troll. I think the kids would not only get a kick out of picking strawberries, but also seeing the troll at Eno River Farm. Your tulips are beautiful, not only the pictures at the venue, but your tulips you took home. The rosy pink looks so cheery. I don’t think we have anything like that here, just lavender a few farms and sunflower farms. In Holland, Michigan they have the Tulip Festival, but it is more “look but don’t touch” and last year it was so warm the tulips bloomed before the Tulip Festival began. People come from everywhere to the Festival to find spent blooms.
Looks like your tulip festival will have to move its dates up a week earlier like they did with the maple festival in Connecticut. Climate change. There was a daffodil festival in CT, about an hour drive away from us, but I never got there. I did enjoy visiting a lavender farm as the pandemic was starting to lift. And of course we visited the sunflower farm every summer for many years. Now, down here, I am hoping we see some farms on the Piedmont Farm Tour (April 26-27) this year. We missed it last year due to the weather or my illness, I can’t remember which. Maybe it was both. I’d love to see some chickens and sheep and whatever crops they grow.
That makes sense Barbara – I wonder if they’ll change the date like the maple syrup festival. One year my mom and I went up to northern Michigan for the colors, which travel writers say is second only to New England’s Fall foliage. We got up there during the predicted “peak week” and everything was green. You had a lot of heat in the Spring last year – you might have skipped it for that heat and humidity. Every year I say I’m going to the petting farm at Heritage Park as I see so many of the “residents” strolling around the botanical gardens. Then I told myself … measles outbreak, kids on a field trip, maybe next year – sigh.
I remember watching those foliage peak graphics on the TV weather segments, trying to plan trips to Vermont to see the colors on the right weekend, back when we had friends who lived up there. The timing of the peak depends on the weather, day and nighttime temperatures, and the amount of rainfall. So hard to predict. We got lots of good color at home in Connecticut, which was convenient because we lived in the middle of the show, but Vermont, if you could catch it right, was spectacular.
I have heard that New England in the Fall is spectacular. You were lucky to get good color in Connecticut, plus visiting Vermont. I saw a train trip advertised many years ago and you slept/ate on the train, but got off in various towns, but the train would stop on the tracks for panoramic views of the foliage, so even if the weather was bad that day, you could still see “the show”. Our drought-like conditions for all of Michigan messed up the colors for Autumn 2024. We had color, but not as vibrant as before – nothing is the same in nature it seems.
What a cool adventure to go tulip picking! Beautiful photos and I love that buried troll, neat!
It was such a nice change of pace — I felt like a wild animal getting some enrichment, something new to stimulate my mind!
Fun! I love that you did this. I’ve never heard of such a thing. I like your three lovely tulips.
You never heard of tulip-picking or of half-buried trolls? 🙂
So pretty! Still waiting for tulips here. My hyacinths and a few early daffodils have snow on their little heads this morning.
They went by so quickly! The next weekend the farm offered to let people dig up the tulip bulbs to take home. Aww, wishing warmer days to come for your hyacinths and daffodils!