With over 7 miles of Tulip Lanes filled with over 250,000 tulip bulbs, planting the Tulip Lanes in Holland, MI takes careful planning and a custom built machine to pull it off. Watch the video to see how the City of Holland Parks Department does it.
The City of Holland has been planting the Tulip Lanes since 1929 (by Hand). It wasn’t until 1997 when Holland Transplanter custom built the digger. This shortened the process by several weeks. Every year the machine is tweaked to improve performance and speed. The dirt is removed and composted for 3 years and is mixed with leaves before heading back to the Tulip Lanes. After the trench is made, the tulips are still planted by hand. Most of the tulips are late variety to time it with Tulip Time.
At the beginning of June, residents are provided with free annuals from various local green houses that donate their surplus inventory. Residents then plant the annuals in the Tulip Lanes to beautify the streets for the remaining season.
As far as we know, Holland is the only city to have Tulip Lanes. According to Tulip Time, the trolly tour around the tulip lanes attracted over 3,000 people in 2015. There were also 130 motor coaches that went through the lanes as well.
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