How to know when Pella’s tulips are in bloom
Every spring, Iowans start watching the calendar and the weather… waiting for one thing: tulip season in Pella.
Warmer temperatures, greener landscapes, and thousands of colorful blooms transform this Dutch-inspired town into one of the most photographed places in the state. But timing your visit just right can make all the difference.
So how do you know when the tulips are actually in bloom?
Here three ways to keep tabs on the tulips in Pella:
- Pella Bloom Status Map
- Coffee Time with Tulips – Facebook live videos tours of the tulip bed
- Tulip Tuesdays – weekly Facebook updates on the tulips
1) Pella Bloom Status Map
This online map is a treasure map for tulip hunters. Once a week, a person visits the tulip beds and notes their status. For example, are they showing any color, or are they in bloom? Considering there are over 250 flower beds to check, that is a crazy task! The map is also full of great info on each flower bed.
Here’s an example: In the large flower bed that is next to the small windmill in Central Park – it’s labeled…
Rainbow River Blend (M) 5,000
This means the name or variety of tulips in this bed is: Rainbow River Blend. (M) stands for Middle, which is the approximate bloom time, as it’s marked as either Early, Middle, or Late. The number 5,000 notes that this flower bed has approximately 5,000 bulbs planted.
Visit the Pella Bloom Status Map at:
www.cityofpella.com/tulipbloomstatus
2) Coffee Time with Tulips
Let’s assume the map isn’t enough information. You would prefer an actual live video tour of the flower beds, so you can see their exact status by yourself. Well, you’re in luck, they have that too. Head over to the Facebook page for Pella Community Services. Starting in mid April, they will have Facebook live sessions called “Coffee Time with Tulips”. The sessions are held once a week. The narrator grabs a cup of coffee and uses a golf cart or gator to drive around to various parks and shows you the exact status of the tulips. Of course, they don’t visit every park every week, but you do get a really great view of exactly how the tulips are progressing.
3) Tulip Tuesdays
Every Tuesday, the folks at Pella Historical Museum and Tulip Time post a video on their Facebook page showing the progress of the tulips.
Related Post: If you want to have the tulips all to yourself, you’ll have to get up early in the morning. Here’s how beautiful Pella’s tulips look early in the morning before the crowds show up.
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