How to Grow, Care For and Harvest Tulip Flowers and Gardens
Tulip Festival in Holland MI, May 2-9, 2009
By Dave Pipitone
If you love tulips, early May in 2009 is your time. The first week of May is prime time for Tulip festival in Holland MI. In fact, that week is Tulip Time which is the official celebration of one of the largest the Dutch heritage in the midwestern United States. If you have never attended this event, you can see some wonderful Tulip fields in full bloom.
Every Holland Michigan tulip is on display, depending on the weather and growing season. After a challenging, cold winter we are looking forward to the 2009 growing season. The Holland tulip festival is on track for May 2 - May 9, 2009. This year marks the 80th Anniversary of Tulip Time.
The city of Holland has lined up a variety of entertainment, events and ethnic celebrations for families and tulip lovers. Here are a few highlights planned for 2009.
Festival Holland Tulip Viewing
The Holland, MI area boasts more than 5,000,000 tulips on display throughout the city's parks, attractions and local residences. You can visit the Veldheer Tulip Farm which plants millions of tulip bulbs every fall and features numerous gardens thick with yellow Big Smile, orange Apricot Dream, red Appeldorn, and literally dozens of other varieties and colors. The tulip farm began in 1945 with 100 red tulips and 300 white tulips.
Today, the farm has displays of Darwin Hybrid tulips, lily tulips, parrot tulips, peony (double) tulips, Triumph tulips and specialty tulips. The gardens also feature white, pink and blue hyacinths, daffodils and narcissi.
Each patch is labeled with a numbered stake and visitors can match the number with a printed guide sheet to learn the name, colors and growing statistics of the tulip flowers. Visitors can order Holland tulip bulbs from the guidesheet, which are shipped the following September. Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for children. The Veldheer Tulip Farm is located on Quincy Street, just off Highway US 31, about 3 miles north of Holland.
Another place to view tulips during Tulip Time is Nelis' Dutch Village in Holland, Michigan. Dutch Village is a family place with building, authentic Dutch food, Delftware, working street organs, a wooden Shoe Factory, bell tower and lots of attractions for children and adults. Dutch Village offers a quaint setting that has buildings modeled after 1800's Netherlands cottage architecture.
There are several, smaller patches of tulips that are spread throughout the Village and identified by numbered stakes so that visitors know what the tulips are. Dutch Village is on US 31 on the northern edge of Holland. Admission for adults is $10; $5 for children.
A third scenic spot to view tulips during the Holland Tulip Festival is Windmill Island. Located just off 7th Street, Windmill Island offers a shopping area, historic architecture including the Posthouse museum (14th century replica of a wayside inn.
Windmill Island is the home of De Zwaan, a 240 year-old working windmill from the Netherlands. The space offers 150,000 tulips during spring and annuals during the summer.
Lastly, there are scenic plantings of tulips on 8th Street in downtown Holland and eight miles of curbside tulips planted throughout the city so that you can tour the city and view the tulips.
Entertainment at the Tulip Time Festival
Bobby Vinton will be in concert on May 7 in two shows - at 4:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. Admission is $39 per ticket and can be ordered online at www.tuliptime.org. Other entertainers include the Oak Ridge Boys at 8:00 p.m. on May 8 ($38/ticket), pianist Jan Mulder on May 2 at 8:00 p.m. ($37/ticket) and 1964 The Tribute (Beatles impersonators) at 6:00 p.m. on May 2 ($24/ticket.)
If you have the time to visit the tulip festival in Holland MI, your celebration of Spring 2009 will be a joyful one.
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