Tulip Time in Holland, Michigan - wow!


Do you know about Holland, Michigan,  the 'tulip town'?

 The Holland Michigan Tulip Festival displays over six million of the town's signature flower every year.


Also known as the Tulip Time Festival, it is the largest tulip festival in the United States and Reader's Digest has named it the best small town festival in the country.



Indeed, Holland, Michigan was named by Money Magazine one of the top ten places to retire, partially due to its cultural assets and large amounts of green space. 

 I bet the tulip festival has something to do with this because any town that dedicates itself to flowers has got to be special!
The idea of Tulip Time was introduced in 1927 at a Woman's Literary Club meeting by Miss Lida Rogers, a biology teacher at Holland High School.
 She suggested Holland adopt the tulip as its flower and set aside a day for a festival. She wanted every resident to plant tulips in their yard. The first year in 1928, City Council purchased 100,000 tulip bulbs from the Netherlands. These bulbs were  planted in city parks and other areas. Bulbs were available to Holland residents at one cent a piece.



Thus, it was in 1929 that thousands of tulips bloomed, and Holland invited visitors to come during a week in May.  The festival began in earnest in 1930 when 250,000 tulips were planted for the event. 

 Now they are are planted along city streets, in city parks and outside municipal buildings as well as at tourist attractions. 

 About one million tourists visit Tulip Time each year bringing in a lot of tourist dollars....








Comments

  1. DeniseMay 1, 2016 at 8:37 AM

    Lovely post. I blogged about the Holland Tulip Festival last month for H in my A to Z Challenge.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jan JohnsenMay 1, 2016 at 11:22 AM

      H is for Holland..I get it...what did you do about X?

      Delete
    2. DeniseMay 1, 2016 at 12:01 PM

      X marks the spot with a map of where I live in the state. Not one place in Michigan starts with X. Charlevoix ends in X but I used it for C. I did have two Z places though, Zilwaukee Bridge and the Ziibiwing Indian Cultural Center.

      Delete

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