Celebrating History With 200,000 Tulips

Good morning. It’s Thursday. Today we’ll look at why truckloads of tulips are coming to Union Square this weekend.

Credit…Orange

Sunday is Tulip Day in Manhattan’s Union Square.

A temporary field of 200,000 flowers, trucked in from farms in New Jersey and Virginia, will bloom in the plaza from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.; more than 10,000 people have registered in advance to create their own free bouquets. (Walk-ins will also be admitted.)

While there is no shortage of flowercentric events and festivals in New York each year, this is the first time Royal Anthos, a Dutch trade association for flower bulb companies, is bringing Tulip Day to the city alongside the European Union and the Netherlands Consulate General of New York. (Similar events are held in Amsterdam and San Francisco.)

Jeroen Bours, president of the Netherland Club of New York, which is also helping put on the event, said that when one of the club’s organizers mentioned the idea to him last year, he pointed out that if it were to take place in the city, the event would need to scale up. “If it’s not big, it’s not New York,” he said.

Tulip Day is one of many events that the Netherlands Consulate General is hosting to honor the 400 years since the first Dutch settlements were established in what is now New York.