Spring on the Bluff

This upcoming Mother’s Day will be our 3rd annual “Spring on the Bluff” and I am so excited to share our farm with you!

But, like any good tale, you might be interested to hear the origin story…

In the fall of 2020, I planted 4,000 tulip bulbs dreaming of a beautiful field for people to come and not just view the tulips, but to pick them.

As the tulips began to bloom in Spring of 2021, I set-up my flower shop and opened up, but not a single customer stopped by. All those beautiful flowers and not a soul to pick them. I remember my oldest son texting me to ask how my day was going and when I replied that no one had came, he very sweetly told me that no one must know because the tulips were beautiful.

I opened again the following weekend, but when just a few people stopped by, I decided I needed to close the shop. I was crushed, but decided to change the field to an honor stand – allowing people to stop by during day time hours to u-pick. It was just too hard watching no one arrive.

2021 Honor Stand

Night after night, I was surprised to find a few dollars in my honor stand box – people were actually coming. And then, I was tagged in the most adorable photo ever…

@sarahannhurno adorable daughter picking tulips

Even though people were coming, it was most certainly not a success – I had probably made enough to pay for maybe 200 of the 4,000 bulbs. So you can probably imagine my husband’s exasperation when I ordered 6,000 more tulip bulbs for that fall. I was doing the same thing & hoping for a different result – not exactly sane, but I couldn’t be the only one that thought picking tulips would be much more fun than buying them at Trader Joe’s right?

When that Spring came, I was given permission to use the adorable photo to promote the u-pick tulips. I asked some of the vendors that had sold goods in the fall if they wanted to join the event – surely that would draw more people. The news got wind & filmed our tulips. I was ready (or so I thought) to open on Mother’s Day 2022.

2022 – We made the news!

I hadn’t even unlocked the doors and people were starting to line up. A flood of emotions all at once – relief, excitement & fear – why didn’t I hire any employees? How was I going to do this on my own? The line for tulips and mimosas ran from the flower shop to the parking lot. It was like nothing I’ve ever seen. As I apologized profusely for not being more prepared – everyone was so gracious with me. Everyone was smiling, just happy to spend the day with mom picking flowers. It was the perfect demonstration of how your community responds when you follow your heart.

I ordered 8,500 more tulip bulbs for that fall and vowed to be more prepared in 2023 – I owed it to all those amazing people who took a chance on me. However, my tulip bulbs arrived four weeks late. This normally would not have been too big of an issue, but we received our first snow on November 4th and by the time the bulbs arrived on the 17th, the ground was too frozen to plant.

I placed all of the bulbs in our wine cooler to keep them chilled and prayed for a break in snow. That melt-off finally came in February – about as late as it could for the bulbs to still have time to bloom. The problem now was that the ground was too frozen to dig. So in the grossest conditions you can imagine, we placed the bulbs on top the ground and covered them with anything we could find – hay, grass clippings, our not-so-composted compost pile of leftover wedding flowers – and then held our breath & waited for Spring.

“Planting” tulips on top of the frozen muddy ground

In the meantime, I knew we had to get busy making this event worthy for Spokane…

• Plant Hanging Baskets
• Plant Herbs/house plants for sale
• Order pots
• Secure Crêpe Café Sister Food Truck
• Organize 40+ vendors
• Hire employees

As all of these things came together, guess what else happened?

Tulips coming up in not-so-composted wedding flowers & grass clippings

8,500 tulips, through terrible odds, all came up in beautiful rows. And that, my friends, is pure magic.

2023 Tulip Field

Won’t you please join us this Mother’s Day to celebrate this magic? I’m sure I will have made more mistakes, but there will be delicious food, amazing vendors, a DIY hanging basket station and tulips…lots & lots of tulips.

Find all of our details and a list of vendors here: Spring on the Bluff

Cheers,
Crystal