When José Romero learned there would be tens of thousands of tulips up for grabs on the National Mall on his 48th birthday, he knew he had to try to nab one of the highly sought tickets.
“Tulips are my favorite flowers. They just brighten everything,” Romero said.
So when the festival’s free tickets were released two weeks ago, he set up a command center, refreshing multiple browsers on his phone and computer. The website crashed several times under a massive influx of traffic — but Romero was able to secure a spot through a link on Instagram.
Romero was one of the 12,500 lucky people invited to pick a colorful bouquet of 10 free flowers on Tulip Day, celebrated Sunday on the National Mall. It is organized by Royal Anthos, a trade association of flower bulb growers in the Netherlands, with support from the Dutch Embassy and a grant from the European Union aiming to boost agricultural exports.
Royal Anthos director Mark-Jan Terwindt wasn’t surprised by the massive enthusiasm for the event. “The tulip is a symbol of spring,” he said. “People long for spring to start, especially after a harsh winter like we had this year.”
Cities around the world host Tulip Day celebrations, including Amsterdam, Berlin, New York and San Francisco. But this is the first time the event has been held in Washington.
One corner of the tulip garden featured flowers in the shape of the number 250, to mark the anniversary of American independence later this year.
“If somebody has a big birthday, the Dutch come with flowers, so that’s what we do here,” Terwindt said.
This event was many months in the making, with bulbs shipped from the Netherlands last fall to farms in Virginia and New Jersey.
“The bulbs are actually produced in the Netherlands, but then they’re grown into tulips here in the U.S.,” said Birgitta Tazelaar, the Dutch ambassador. “It’s a great symbol of our relationship.”
Werner Jansen, a Netherlands native who now lives in the United States, is the CEO of Bloomia, the company that owns the farm in Virginia where many of the tulips for the event were grown. He said the tariffs on imports — including flower bulbs — are “not ideal,” but isn’t worried about the tulip industry.
“As long as the American population enjoys and loves tulips, then we will continue to have success,” Jansen said.
Jovita Neliupšienė, the European Union’s ambassador to the United States, shared a similar message.
“People cherish those differences we have across the Atlantic, but also cherish the things that unite us,” she said. “Love for beauty, love for our common values, and love for the possibility to work together.”
The weather Sunday morning was chilly and gray. Wind made the 50-degree day feel cooler. But that didn’t dampen the spirits of the thousands flocking to the celebration.
Sara Cornett, 30, drove down from Baltimore early Sunday morning to line up for the event with her husband and mother-in-law.
“We’ve had an extraordinarily cold winter here in the DMV,” Cornett said. “So it’s just nice to finally see the turn of it.”
Jessica Cobb wore a pink floral ball gown under her denim jacket and balanced pink sunglasses on her head. She had rented the dress for an event Friday night but didn’t have to return it until Monday, so she decided to wear the dress to pick flowers.
“We had weeks of snowcrete,” Cobb said. “It’s just amazing to welcome spring with beautiful tulips.”
Lizbeth Gomez, 23, came all the way from Georgia to join the tulip party.
“I’m a flower enthusiast,” Gomez explained. “I took a flower arranging class, so I’m all in for this event.”
The event’s organizers said Tulip Day often spills into the rest of the community.
“There’s always this side effect,” Terwindt said. “When people leave here, they’re all happy carrying their flowers and then they go around in the city and they’ll make the whole city happy.” On the Metro and on sidewalks across the city, the flowers serve as conversation starter, sparking little moments of connection, he said.
Brittany Leeman wants to extend that joy even further to her neighborhood in Park View — for the rest of the spring and hopefully beyond.
“We’ve been working really hard on that patch of land that’s between the sidewalk and the curb just to make it more beautiful,” Leeman said. “We planted some daffodils and we plan to plant these just to beautify the neighborhood a little bit.” She plans to keep the flower bulbs in water until it’s warm enough to plant them.
Volunteers wore bright orange jackets to signal that they were there to help.
“This is an excellent way of showing people what tulips do for you,” said Jeroen van het Kaar, a flower bulb broker who came from the Netherlands to volunteer for the event. “Tulips make you happy. They bring spring into your life.”
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