MONUMENT — A Tulip Festival is happening in Monument this weekend, May 12-15 at the Colorado Kids Ranch. Organizers say it’s the first ever Tulip Festival in Colorado where you can pick your own tulips for your own flower bouquet.
Last fall, Kimberlee Bush, the gardener of the tulip field planted nearly 28,000 tulips. As the saying goes, April showers brings May flowers, and right now the tulips are in full bloom.
Part of the tulip picking experience is seeing where your flowers came from, and becoming your own bouquet artist.
“A lot of people have been coming and picking tulips. They can come and see how a tulip comes to be. Many people that have come have just never even seen this in Colorado or seen where flowers come from,” said Bush. “So it’s been fun to talk to families and kids as they’ve been doing it.”
Bush says two years ago, she planted a trial tulip garden of 1,700 tulips at the ranch, and it was a wet spring, so the following year, she planted even more.
“This has been a longtime dream of mine for over 10 years,” said Bush. “I have loved tulips since I was a little girl living in New Jersey. I can still tell you about the red tulip in our front yard when I lived there. Plus they were the flowers in my wedding. I’ve just always loved tulips so they've just been special to me.”
Because of the altitude and climate, Bush says the tulip season in Colorado is shorter than other parts of the country, but it’s just as beautiful.
“Colorado can handle tulips, but there's definite specific things you have to do with this altitude and with this garden zone level, because we are higher up and because we can get snow well into the spring,” said Bush.
While enjoying a visit to the ranch, you can also enjoy some outdoor activities, hay rides and pony rides, a petting zoo, and refreshments.
The festival will be going on from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $7 and free for kids under 4.
Click here for more information about the Tulip Festival.