Tulips are in full bloom at Garvan Woodland Gardens as Tulip Extravaganza is expected to remain at its peak for the next few weeks.
When the area was inundated with winter weather and heavy rains in January, staff were in the middle of planting the bulbs for this year's show.
"We started planting and planted for almost two weeks and then had to pause because of cold weather and the rainy weather," Minnie Hahn, senior design and display manager for the botanical garden, said.
"What it's done is just spread the show out a little bit more. So instead of the show being condensed, like I try to plan for it, it's just spread out. There still is a lot in bloom, but we're seeing kind of waves of bloom go through. So we'll have some areas that are blooming, and then as they start fading, another area will start blooming."
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Hahn said she typically times the planting so the late blooming and early blooming flowers tend to peak around the same time.
"It condenses the show, so it's more color at a time," she said. "But it still is a great show. You still have tulips all over, and we're still at peak. Probably going to be at peak for, I would say, at least the next two weeks, if not longer depending on what the weather does. We still have stuff that is coming up, and the buds haven't even opened yet. So it'll be a very long show this year."
The recent spate of cold weather at night has not hindered this year's show, Hahn noted.
"They're a cool-weather flower, so they're really acclimated to those cold spells and can withstand it," she said. "If the temperatures get down into the mid-20s for a length of time, yes, it will impact them. It will freeze them, but if it just dips down below freezing for a couple hours, it doesn't do anything to hurt them. I mean, you can see up north in some places the tulips will actually come up through the snow. Now that's not ideal, but it is something that happens."
The staff at Garvan Woodland Gardens replants the tulips every year because, while they are perennials, the temperatures do not get cold enough for them to properly perennialize.
"There are very few varieties that will do that, and then they're also extremely inconsistent in reblooming," Hahn said, pointing out the area was reclassified as USDA Hardiness Zone 8, meaning winter temperatures are warmer.
"So we do treat them as annuals," she said. "We certainly saw the trend early on and started moving our dates back that we were planting the tulips so that we don't have tulips blooming in January when we are closed to the public."
Another reason for the replanting each year is because the show is different each year,
"We also have a different show every year, so if we were to leave the two of them around, it'd be the same colors and the same spot every year," Kristin Mangham, marketing director for the gardens, said. "Minnie does a really good job of deciding the actual design of the plantings, so it's different. You can come see the tulips every year, and it's always going to be different."
Hahn said this year she used the idea of the eclipse in her design of the show.
"I had four or five ladies that were helping me do the design this year, and we came up with the general theme and then the color schemes and heights of the tulips and all of that," she said. "Put it on paper, and then they helped by actually coming out in the field and laying down the lines. The way that we plant tulips, it's all hand-planted, and we actually have string lines that we lay down, and then we go and plant in the shapes that we've created with those string lines."
The reason for the hand planting of the 150,000 tulips is to create different designs, Hahn said.
"There are places that do have more tulips than we do, but they actually plant those by machine," she said. "So they're just in rows. So it isn't actually a design, it's more of just a field that has tulips in it. That's one of the things that really makes us unique and sets us apart from other places. It isn't necessarily the amount of tulips but is that it is intentionally designed and we're in the woods. All of those different pieces really give us a unique setting."
Hahn spends about 90 hours designing the show, which does not include ordering the bulbs or other parts of creating it.
"I have base maps that have been created of the location of the trails and those types of things, so I use that as my template that I add to," she said. "Typically what I do is I try and brainstorm and come up with some sort of inspiration or idea. A lot of times I rely on resources like Pinterest to go through and just find images that kind of capture my imagination and that I find inspiring, and then I'll work off of that. ... Typically I will break the show into different areas, so that it's easier for me to go through and manage this one small space versus thinking of it as this gigantic show."
When planning the display, Hahn takes into account more than just the color or the timing of the blooms.
"One of the things that I try really hard to do is if I have, for example, two triumph tulips, I try to not put them next to each other so even if they're different colors because the shapes are similar and the way that they flower is similar," she said.
"I try and put something different like a peony tulip next to those or a lily tulip. That way it gives that kind of diversity, that interest, instead of just masses of different colors. It's not just color, it's the height, it's the shape of the flower. All of those different things come into play. Some of them even have variegated foliage, and so that plays a part as well."
Garvan Woodland Gardens is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, and tickets can be purchased at the gate or at:
https://tinyurl.com/4dev9wfb
Pink, red, yellow and white tulips are among the 150,000 that were planted for this year's Tulip Extravaganza, which is at its peak now. (The Sentinel-Record/Donald Cross)
While the traditional red tulip is on display at Garvan Woodland Gardens during its Tulip Extravaganza, the show consists of multiple varieties and colors. (The Sentinel-Record/Donald Cross)