Ukraine needs flower power

Sunflowers are to Ukraine what tulips are to western Washington. During the blooming season, both are spectacular and represent the best in the people who cultivate and visit those fields.

In late 1945, Princess Juliana of the Netherlands presented the Canadian government with 100,000 tulip bulbs as a gift for providing Holland’s royal family exile during World War II. Since then, the tulip became known as a “Peace Flower” in North America. Her pilgrimage inspired Dutch tulip growers to come and farm western Washington’s rich soils.

Ukraine was the world’s leading producer of sunflower oil. At...