How to know when Pella’s tulips are in bloom
It’s April and we’re all anxiously awaiting the arrival of warmer temperatures, greener landscapes, and of course, the annual blooming of the tulips in Pella, Iowa. But how do you know when the tulips are in bloom, so you can make sure your trip to the Dutch community is well-timed?
The most obvious way to see the tulips in bloom is to visit during their annual tulip festival. This year it’s scheduled for May 2nd thru 4th, 2024. Check out the Visit Pella Tulip Time Page for all the details, schedules, and maps. About six months before the festival, the Pella Parks Department plants approximately 130,000 tulip bulbs. (Keep in mind – they aren’t the only people planting tulip bulbs, this is just what they plant). The bulbs are planted across the month of October and November. In addition, there’s a wide variety that blooms either early or late into spring. They’ve been doing this for eighty-plus years – so they know how to get tulips to bloom for the first week of May.
However, let’s assume you want to visit Pella to check out the tulips before or after the festival. Here are the best methods for verifying what tulips are currently blooming in Pella, Iowa.
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
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.
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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