What happens to the Tulip Time bulbs after the festival? This year will be a little different!
Once this year’s Tulip Time festival is over, tens of thousands of tulip bulbs will be handed out to community members by Council volunteers. Locals are invited to pop down to Corbett Gardens on October 11 between 8:30am and 3:00pm and pick-up a free bag of 10 tulip bulbs.
“We know people will appreciate having a keepsake from the festival spectacle to colour their own garden for years to come,” says Wingecarribee Shire Council Administrator Mr Viv May.
It’s not viable for Council to catalogue and store such a massive quantity of bulbs for re-use next year, and Community Associations were in favour of gifting them to gardens all over the Southern Highlands.
If you’ve never grown tulips before, you’ll be pleased to know your free bag of bulbs will come with an easy-to-follow fact sheet on how to care for your bulbs. You can also have a chat with our Open Space team who will be on hand when you collect your bulbs, to share helpful advice.
“Expanding the festival footprint by providing planter boxes to the villages has connected our whole community to this year’s Tulip Time festivities and by sharing more of the bulbs around to the wider community, our hope is to continue to grow this into a Shire-wide activation for years to come,” Mr May said.
Any unclaimed bulbs won’t go to waste but will be donated to Welby Garden Centre where they’ll be treated and made available for sale. The proceeds will support Challenge Southern Highlands disability services.
So mark October 11 on your calendar and let’s keep the memory of this year’s Tulip Time experience alive, year after year after year!