Take a Virtual Tour of Over 300,000 Blooming Tulips in Pella, Iowa
Pella, Iowa, is famous across the country for its annual spring festival with hundreds of thousands of blooming tulips. Tulip Time first began back in 1935, and is a celebration of the small town’s Dutch roots. Usually, thousands of visitors flock to the town during the three-day festival to watch the daily parades, sample Dutch foods, and of course, stroll through the tulips. Unfortunately, like most events, this year’s Tulip Time Festival was canceled because of safety measures due to the new coronavirus. But even without the usual visitors, the tulips are still in full bloom, and one of the best ways to enjoy them from a distance is through Pella’s virtual tours.
Courtesy of the Pella Historical Society For 2020, the Pella Parks Department planted over 70 different tulip varieties along the streets and in parks.
Every weekday, the City of Pella, Pella Historical Museum, and Visit Pella are posting videos on their Facebook pages to virtually guide visitors through the gardens. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, you can watch Coffee Time with Tulips live at 9 a.m. CT, hosted by Pella Parks Manager Chandler Nunnikhoven. So far, he’s showed viewers areas of the town such as Brinkhoff Park (which has 4,000 tulips planted in a single bed around the base of a windmill), shared tips for planting tulips while strolling through downtown, and even walked through Sunken Gardens Park after a surprise mid-April snowstorm.
Courtesy of the Pella Historical Society Usually, the town starts planting over 300,000 tulips bulbs in October to bloom the next spring.
On Tuesdays, you can get an update on the tulips and take a closer look at all of the varieties planted in the Historical Village, hosted by Jessi Vos of the Pella Historical Society. And every Thursday, Jill Vandervoort, the director of Visit Pella, has been showing their followers her favorite tulip bed of the week. In addition to these regular videos, each page has also been posting extras almost daily, including virtual walking tours, crafting projects, and how-tos for some of the festival's best foods such as oliebollen (Dutch donuts) and Dutch spiced beef.
It’s not quite the same as walking the streets yourself, but it’s the best way to see the tulips this year with social distancing measures in place. As always, the city will plant more bulbs this fall, and next April and May, the tulips will be back and just as beautiful as ever. You might have to be patient to see them in person, but as you’ll see in the virtual tours, it’s well worth the wait!
