Viral post for Kenwood lavender snarls Highway 12 traffic

A massive traffic jam Saturday caused by a love of lavender brought Highway 12 to a standstill, inundating Kenwood with people and cars and forcing the cancellation of an open house this weekend at the Sonoma Lavender Barn to avoid a reprise.

Sonoma Lavender owner Gary Rosenberg and his wife Rebecca had thought crowds would be “no big deal” when they created a post on the Kenwood business’ Facebook page about three months ago, inviting the public to see their 2 1/2 acres of lavender in full bloom.

They’ve held festivals before, hosted plenty of events. They expected 25 people at a time. They knew the numbers: 2 1/2 acres for parking, enough to hold about 300 cars.

What could go wrong?

Well, for starters, about 3,000 people showed up over the course of two days - the majority on Saturday - from all over the Bay Area.

“We just wanted to invite the public to come see lavender in full bloom, and cut some if they wanted,” he said. “I didn’t think we’d have much of a response. All we did was post it on Facebook one time, and I guess these things can - in so many words - go viral.”

By the time the Rosenbergs had deleted the Facebook post, it had reached more than 950,000 people.

What that meant Saturday was traffic backed up in each direction for about a mile.

Chris Gooding, the office manager at Swede’s Feeds, which sits just southwest of the barn on Highway 12, said traffic was backed up from about Warm Springs Road to Adobe Canyon Road, with cars trying to turn onto Goff Road, where the barn is located.

“It took 30 minutes to get through Kenwood,” she said. “Usually it’s just a blink.”

The California Highway Patrol got wind of the mess and sent an officer to investigate. CHP Sgt. Christine Jacobs said the officer hung around for five to 10 minutes, before leaving.

“It’s like when the fair comes to town, traffic backs up over there,” Jacobs said.

The CHP officer got off easy. The Rosenbergs and their employees were overwhelmed. Employees had to ask latecomers to leave. Gary Rosenberg spoke to one group from Fremont that was denied their lavender rapture.

“We didn’t make it try to sound bigger than it was,” he said. “We just sent (the Facebook invitation) out as a courtesy to say, ‘We’ll welcome you on our land.’ That’s how we envisioned it - a quiet stop by and take a look kind of thing.”

Shelli Colmenero, customer service manager for Sonoma Lavender, said groups of 10 people were lying in the fields, using selfie sticks to snap pictures.

“It’s like, you’re lying on our plants!” she said.

Despite Sonoma Lavender’s terse notice on its website about putting the kibosh on this weekend’s open house - “Due to traffic issues, the events have been canceled and the field are closed to the public” - the Rosenbergs aren’t taking any chances.

Their lavender harvest will commence this week.

You can reach Staff Writer Christi Warren at 521-5205 or christi.warren@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @SeaWarren.