Tulip Farm Near Charlotte NC

The Pops and I went rotating again and ended up in a tulip field in the Carolina Slate Belt of the Piedmont Plateau of North Carolina, just a 40 minute drive northwest of Charlotte.

Patterson Farm Market & Tours

10390 Caldwell Rd.

Mount Ulla, NC

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It was a cool late-March morning dangerously close to tulip season's end, after the great rains and tornado threats went through when we finally got the chance to get out rotating.

We drove North out of the city of 950,000, crossed Rocky River, took a slight left at Concord, crossed Irish Buffalo Creek just below it's headwaters and inched our way over Kerr Creek, slowing down to take the left into Patterson's. 

Patterson's has a market we browsed with a clerk we knew 30 years ago. We reminisced a bit then drove my 86 year old father closer to the Tulip gardens. 

I paid the $5 entry while the Pops got settled on a bench in the sun. I looped a wicker basket over my arm, twirled the cutters in my fingers and tip-toed through the tulips. You knew I'd have to say that sometime.

As an Anthophile, the tulip is my favorite flower. I know, right? Anthophile! Google it.

My fave would be the Estella Rijnveld tulip because 1. Anna Pavord, in her raging best-seller The Tulip, says it "looks like raspberry ripple ice-cream" which I love, and 2. Online it is described as having a "whirling dervish intensity," which is SO me.  (My X bio includes "artist, vagabond, whirling dervish...")

I consulted the Hortus Bulborium to find that while tulips date back to the 16th century, they Had a magnificent comeback in the Dutch Tulipomania of the 1630s. Tulipomania! I know, right? I'm in Heaven.

One last significant thought. In 1920, brown tulips were in fashion. The Dom Pedro grew in fame due to its coloring. I'd like me a Dom Pedro tulip on account of it reminds me of the steak burrito at Don Pedro's. 

The tulips I planted six years ago bloomed a few years and quit, to my great dismay. But I just learned that I should dig up the bulbs in Summer and store them in a dark cool place, replanting them in late Fall. AND because it's so hot here, I should put the bulbs in the fridge 8 weeks before replanting. They love that! So when you come over for a Fall picnic, be careful what you eat out of my fridge. I'm just sayin'.

Back to today and my fresh cut tulips from Patterson's. I found out that they will last a lot longer if I do one of the following:  toss a little vodka in the vase, put ice cubes in the vase, OR put a copper (pre 1982) penny in the vase.  And this is just my thought here, if you put a penny in the vase, make a wish as you toss it in.