HOLLAND, Michigan — A celebration of all things fall is happening in downtown Holland Friday and Saturday. In Tulip City, fall means it's time to plant, and you are invited to help.
Those beautiful flowers we enjoy every May actually need to be planted in autumn, which surprises some people.
Tulip Time Director Gwen Auwerda explains why they plant in October.
"Tulips are a bulb, like daffodils. They grow and sprout their roots when the ground is frozen. They are supposed to be growing slowly over the winter," Auwerda said.
The community is invited to help the city plant 85,000 tulip bulbs at Window on the Waterfront. There will be four different times that the public can help: Friday at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., and Saturday at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. Tools will be provided, but you might want to bring your own gardening gloves. Participants also need to sign up online.
"It will take two days but if the Parks Department did it themselves it would take five weeks, so this is such a help to the community and to the city and the Parks Department for us to provide volunteers to get the tulips planted," Auwerda said.
The fall festival that's happening in downtown Holland includes so much more than planting. This two-day fall-themed event features pumpkin carving by some of the nation's best professional pumpkin carvers, kids will be able to paint pumpkins, and an artisan vendor market will be happening at Windmill Island Gardens.
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