HOLLAND, Mich. — There's still a weekend of fun in store for Tulip Time as events continue for this year, but the City of Holland is already planning for next year.
The city's parks and recreation department said they work hard to be ready for the next season.
Parks and recreation officials said this is the time of year tulip brokers are getting ready to sell tulips for the upcoming fall. That's why they said they have to stay on top of what they need to order, while also prepping back here at home.
"Everybody is enjoying the tulips, and we are busy at work planning for next year already," said City of Holland's Deputy Director of Parks & Cemeteries Jamie Scott.
The tulip planning process does not stop.
While this year's Tulip Time is in full swing, the wheels are spinning in the background.
"We basically start this time of year. We go through all of the beds that we planted last year, and we assess what everything looks like and how well it did," said Scott.
In addition to volunteers who come out to help plant, Holland's Parks and Recreation Department makes it all possible.
"We have a horticulturalist on staff, greenhouse specialist and have a whole team of people that help do that," said City of Holland Director of Parks and Recreation Andy Kenyon.
"With all the beds that we have, we have to be very studious of where we place everything, so that process starts with hand drawing all of our maps, allocating varieties, allocating numbers, and then taking those off of the spreadsheet and widdling the 550,000 tulips down to zero," said Scott.
The one thing the team really focuses on is making sure the people living in Holland and visitors don't see the same thing twice.
"One exception would be the tulip lanes. We alternate planting, so we do every two years. Some residents might see that they have red in front of their house for two years in a row, but visitors don’t," said Scott.
Planning starts by July, and then by the time September arrives, the tulip orders have come in from the Netherlands and are ready to be put into the ground.
