City officials encouraged by tulip conditions a month ahead of 2024 Tulip Time Festival

HOLLAND — With less than 30 days until Tulip Time 2024 kicks off, all eyes are on the tulips.

Questions about their status began in early March, when warm temperatures brought concerns of the potential for another Stem Fest, a la 2012.

More: Amid record-breaking warmth, will Holland's famous flowers wait for Tulip Time?

Despite those concerns, Holland's Parks and Recreation Director Andy Kenyon said conditions are ripe for growth and the tulips are where they’d expect for the second week of April.

“We are still sitting pretty good,” Kenyon said. “The weather is looking warmer, so that means the tulips will start growing and budding soon. Sixties (degrees) during the day and 40s at night equals great growing temps.”

Kenyon helps oversee the planting of about 560,000 tulips across the city — including downtown, Windmill Island Gardens, area parks, city hall, eight miles of tulip lanes and more.

One thing Kenyon said to keep in mind is that tulip growth people are seeing downtown is expected due to the city’s snowmelt system.

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While Kenyon wouldn’t say when the tulips will peak this year, people could begin to see color in the next week or two. The only concern would be high temperatures in the next few weeks, which isn’t in the forecast.

“I honestly think we will start to see a bunch of color next week around town, and more and more as we get towards the end of the month,” he said. “I hesitate to predict when we will have a peak of color at this point, but I do believe we will have lots of color during the festival.”

The 95th Tulip Time Festival runs from May 4-12. For more information, visit tuliptime.com.

— Contact reporter Austin Metz at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Officials encouraged by tulip status ahead of Tulip Time 2024