Photowalk #15: Tulips in Holland, Michigan

On our way to Wisconsin this month, we made a side trip to Holland, MI to see the tulips. They’ve hosted an annual tulip festival since 1929 after purchasing 100,000 bulbs the previous year. Now each September close to 1,000,000 tulip bulbs arrive in Holland. Planting begins in October and runs through mid-November with over 120 varieties being planted. 200,000 of those bulbs are planted by hand in a variety of locations. (Although they talk about sorting through the 1,000,000 bulbs they never say what happens to the other 800,00!)

We visited two of the major plantings: The Window on the Waterfront Park which is any easy walk from delightful downtown Holland, and Windmill Island Gardens. In addition, there are tulips in window boxes in pots, and along green spaces in the downtown area. The annual festival ended on May 12th this year, and we arrived on the 15th. It was perfect timing: the crowds were gone, and the tulips were still at their peak. We talked to one local photographer who was out with his very big lens and tripod who told us he believed the tulips were the best they’d been in quite a few years. Without a tripod, or a big lens here are some of the photos I took that morning.

A closer view shows the beautiful color variation in the tulip.

Although I’m holding back on a few photos for the Summer Photography Scavenger Hunt, but this is a good one for #3 Repetition.

And now onto Windmill Island Gardens:

I love this display of wooden shoes and this is another one for the scavenger hunt: #18 Something Found in Pairs.

More repetition!

And one final photo for my “Shadows” collection:

We spent some time at the visitor’s center where a lovely woman shared lots of the history, and told us of the year when all the tulips bloomed in March, and there were none left by the time of the May festival. After our tours of the park and the island, we spent some time looking through the lovely shops in downtown, and having lunch on the patio of an Irish pub. All in all, a very satisfying morning. We both agreed it was worth a return trip.