In the spring of 1997, while most of the Pacific Northwest was drenched in its famously relentless rain, something different was happening on a quiet stretch of Marine Drive in Sequim, Washington. Tucked inside the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains, a small family planted row after row of lavender into the glacial soil — and waited. They called it Olympic Lavender, and it became Sequim’s very first commercial lavender farm.
No one in the region had tried anything quite like it. But Sequim had a secret: a microclimate so unique it receives just sixteen inches of rain each year, less than Los Angeles. The soil drained beautifully. The sunlight lingered well into the evening. And the lavender didn’t just survive — it thrived beyond anyone’s wildest expectations.
That first planting was the seed of everything that came after: the farms, the festivals, the tourists who now arrive by the thousands each July. Years later, when we discovered this land was available, we knew we had to carry the story forward. We became the new owners, renamed it Lit Lavender, and poured our hearts into honoring the legacy while building something new. This is where Sequim’s lavender story began — and where its next chapter is being written.
From a single hopeful planting to a destination that draws visitors from around the world
On a sun-soaked stretch of Marine Drive, the very first lavender plants are set into Sequim’s glacial soil — an experiment born of curiosity, research, and a hunch that this rain shadow microclimate could rival the fields of southern France. As Olympic Lavender, the farm becomes Sequim’s first commercial lavender operation.
Inspired in part by the success of that pioneering Marine Drive planting, the community launches the Sequim Lavender Festival. What begins as a modest local gathering quickly grows into the largest lavender celebration in North America, drawing tens of thousands of visitors each July. The movement has officially begun.
New heritage varieties join the original plantings — Grosso, Provence, Royal Velvet, Hidcote — each chosen for how it responds to Sequim’s particular light and air. The farm begins producing handcrafted oils, sachets, and artisan goods, transforming raw blooms into products that carry the essence of the land.
As Sequim cements its identity as the Lavender Capital of North America, the farm on Marine Drive is recognized as the place where it all started. Families return year after year. The fields become a backdrop for proposals, anniversaries, and the kind of slow, golden afternoons that stay in your memory long after you leave.
After decades under its original stewards, the farm finds new owners who fall in love with the land just as the founders did. Olympic Lavender becomes Lit Lavender — a name that captures the farm’s energy, its warmth, and the way the fields literally glow under the long summer light. The new chapter begins immediately: cabins and glamping yurts open among the lavender rows, an 18-hole mini golf course winds through the gardens, axe throwing and giant games arrive, and Puzzles and Bambi join the family. The farm is no longer just a place to visit — it is a place to stay, to play, to linger, to belong.
A full season under new ownership brings a growing flock of heritage chickens, six Lavender Orpington chicks, an expanded farm shop, and visitors who keep coming back. As word spreads and the lavender keeps blooming, Lit Lavender is writing the next chapter of this farm’s extraordinary story.
Every row tells a story. Every bloom carries the fragrance of nearly three decades of care, patience, and devotion to this extraordinary place.
Dozens of lavender farms dot the Sequim Valley today, and we take pride in every one of them. But this land holds a place that no other farm can claim: it was the first. The original experiment. The field that proved it could be done.
When we took over as new owners, we inherited nearly three decades of heritage — 1,500 mature plants, heritage varieties cultivated over decades, and a reputation that put this stretch of Marine Drive on the map. We’re honoring every bit of that legacy while adding our own chapter: new activities, new accommodations, and a new vision for what a visit to a lavender farm can be.
To understand why lavender grows so remarkably well here, you need to understand the geography. The Olympic Mountains rise to nearly eight thousand feet just to our south, casting a vast rain shadow over the Sequim-Dungeness Valley. While Seattle, barely seventy miles away, endures over thirty-seven inches of rain a year, our fields receive just sixteen.
The result is a microclimate that mirrors the growing conditions of Provence: well-drained glacial soil rich in minerals, abundant summer sunshine, gentle maritime breezes, and winters mild enough to keep the roots alive through dormancy. French lavender experts who have visited the farm have remarked on the uncanny similarity.
But Sequim has something Provence does not: the backdrop of the Olympic Mountains rising behind the fields, the Strait of Juan de Fuca glimmering to the north, and a quality of light in the long summer evenings that turns the lavender rows into something almost unearthly in their beauty. It is not just a place to grow lavender. It is the perfect place.
The first time we walked these rows, we felt it — decades of care in every plant, the mountains behind the fields, the way the light turns everything golden. We knew this place deserved new life, new energy, and someone who would love it as much as the people who planted it.— The Owners, Lit Lavender
Walk the rows where Sequim’s lavender movement began. Stay among the fields. Breathe it in. This is more than a visit — it is a memory in the making.