The Man Who Gave Us
Acres and Acres of Flowers
 George
Gibbs was 52 years old in 1882 when he bought some land on Orcas
Island in the San Juans and brought his wife and their eight
children west from Missouri. He planned to start an apple orchard
and had no idea that he would become the father of the commercial
bulb industry in Washington.
A
Gloustershireman, born near the cathedral town of Tewksbury, he
did some farm work as a youth but migrated to the United States
when he was 17. For two years he worked as a farm hand around
Buffalo, then moved west to Michigan. He bought a small farm,
married an Ann Arbor girl and enrolled for classes at the
University of Michigan.
When
he heard of the gold strike in California, nothing could keep him
on the farm. He rushed west, spent two years prospecting and
returned to Michigan with enough in his poke to buy a larger farm.
It prospered. He was able to return to England for several months,
where his articles about agriculture found publication.
On
his return to the States, Gibbs engaged in a variety of
enterprises. He managed a packing house owned by an Englishman,
marketed grain and lumber in Iowa and, in 1870, moved to Missouri,
where he established a wheat ranch southeast of Kansas City.
Then
the westering urge hit him again. Intending to become an
orchardist he planted apple trees and an experimental stand of
hazelnuts. The apples did well.
In
1890 he leased 121 acres near the present Orcas ferry landing for
$10 a year. He planted more fruit trees but, as one history book
of Whatcom County puts it, also "invested $5 in flower bulbs
including hyacinths, tulips, narcissi, crocuses and several
lilies."
Gibbs
planted his bulbs in a small, hand-dug bed. He left them in the
ground for two years. When he dug them in 1894 he found they had
increased far beyond expectation, especially some hyacinths that
had been damaged in planting. They had a profusion of bulblets
around the damaged base.
A
thoughtful farmer and an experienced businessman, Gibbs sensed
opportunity. The Panic of '93 had depressed prices. Apples were
being dumped on the market. There were many orchardists in
Washington but no bulb growers.
Gibbs
ordered a large quantity of bulbs from eastern growers and from
Holland. He planted them in beds averaging 3 feet in width, 15
feet in length. Bulb cultivation was labor intensive. The beds
were dug by hand and planted by hand. But Gibbs and his wife had
eight kids.
When
ordering bulbs from Holland, Gibbs asked for advice from growers
there. The Dutch considered their methods a trade secret, so the
advice he got was not encouraging. One grower warned him: "It
is impossible for a grown man to succeed in this business of bulb
culture without having been familiarized with the industry from
childhood."
He
replied by sending samples of the bulbs produced by San Juan soil
and sunshine. The astonished grower came to Orcas "to see for
himself another land which could grow bulbs equal to Holland."
In
1898 a delegation of Dutch growers visited his gardens. A
newspaper story quoted them as saying they were "astonished
to see such fine plants grown in this part of the world by a man
who has never been trained in bulb culture."
Gibbs
began entering his plants in flower shows. He won a silver medal
at the Trans Mississippi International Exposition, the judges
declaring his Madonna Lily (lilium candidum) to be the largest and
finest they had ever seen.
In
1899 Gibbs sold the apple orchard and moved his bulbs to the
mainland, putting them in at the old Fort Bellingham site. Three
years later he moved them again to a site near Lynden, where he
remained for the rest of his long life.
Gibbs'
successes attracted the attention of other growers. Bulb
cultivation spread southward throughout Whatcom County and Puget
Sound. In 1900 Edwin Wines and Emma Booker began growing bulbs on
Fox Island for sale in Tacoma.
George
Lawyer of Fife was the first large-scale bulb grower in Pierce
County, planting his first bulbs in 1917. By 1920 he had more than
an acre in bulbs and harvested 244,000 cut flowers, which sold for
$4,347.75. By 1926 he was shipping bulbs to Chicago and New York.
George Gibbs' experimental investment of $5 in bulbs had led to a
new industry.
Gibbs
himself died in 1919, the father of eight, the grandfather of 13,
great grandfather of 12 - and the Father of Commercial Bulb
Growing in Washington. Give him a thought when you drive past
acres of flowers that are coming into bloom this month.
Nearly
all of the facts in this sketch are taken from "History
of the Flower Bulb Industry in Washington" by Charles J.
Gould, the long-time plant pathologist at Washington State
University's Puyallup Research and Extension Center in Puyallup.
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