Tulip Festival

The pandemic has led to a surge in outdoor activities -- or at least sharing outdoor activities on social media. This was the case with the Holland Ridge Farms Tulip Festival. The more friends who posted pictures of going to the farm, the more I wanted to go. Turns out the farm is only 30 minutes from my house, even though it felt like a different world.

I ended up going on April 29 -- the farm was only open a few more days. Even when I went, the flowers were all open, and there were many bare places. The next day was a horrific wind storm. I wonder how many stems survived.

It was still lovely. I noticed many multi-generation families -- from babes in strollers to grandparents and great-grandparents, many of Indian descent. There were also teenagers creating TikTok posts (or so I assumed from what I saw). Me, all alone, was an anomaly. 

After I shared a picture of myself at the farm, two friends reached out to say they are working the tulip festival. The behind-the-scenes scoop is this is three weeks of all-hands-on-deck work followed by a quiet week, then they play over and mulch the remaining flowers, try to recover as many bulbs as possible, and plant sunflowers.

The all-hands-on-deck repeats in the fall. I promised one of my friends I'd return for that fun.

The $13 fee gets you in the door (or, on the farm). You pick as many as you want, and pay $1 for each stem. I opted for 13 stems in various shades of pink. It is easy to get carried away, but they take up more space in a vase with their thicker stems then say roses, so choose carefully or you'll have vases of tulips all over your house.

Of the thirteen stems, only 12 survived to the next day. I'm enjoying them while the last.