The logistics of getting 150,000 tulips to the National Mall

Good morning, DMV! It’s Wednesday, March 11.

The Tulip Day event is happening Sunday on the National Mall. There will be 150,000 tulips. Visitors, who were asked to get free tickets online, will get to pick 10 tulips to celebrate spring, the organizers said in a news release.

I tried to get tickets but couldn’t. Nonetheless, I had questions: 150,000 tulips sounds like a lot, but my brain really can’t visualize what that means. So I reached out to organizers of the event to learn more.

The event started in Sweden, then blossomed in Amsterdam, said Anne Verdoes, a project manager at the Royal Anthos bulb-and-nursery trade association. In the United States, the event has been held in San Francisco and New York City, and this is their first time in D.C. The event is made possible by the Royal Anthos, Netherlands embassy and partners across the floral sector, with support from the European Union.

Anne said there will be tulips, with their bulbs still attached, in six colors: white, yellow, light pink, vibrant pink/purple, orange and red.

“To grow tulips from bulbs takes about four to six weeks in a greenhouse. But, if you count the time to grow the bulbs from which the tulips grow, you are looking at a year-harvest cycle. Bulbs are planted in October-November, harvested in summer, shipped to the US from August and then prepared and planted in the greenhouse in the US, where they grow into tulips,” she said.

Half the tulips will be shipped in from King George, Virginia, and the other half from Cream Ridge, New Jersey.

“If you would transport the tulips in long haul trailers, you would need six of them. Into the city we use the 27’ trucks (smaller for city traffic) and then it is 14 or 15 trucks.”

A reader I met with last night in Arlington at the Puzzled Pint event (which was a lot of fun — I recommend it!) said he, too, could not get tickets for Tulip Day. He suggested going to the Franciscan Monastery in the Brookland neighborhood of D.C. to see their tulips. I searched it up and learned that last November, landscapers planted 10,000 tulip bulbs, which they expect will bloom in early April.

Joan Burns, 70, sent in this photo she took with a brief note: “This Monday afternoon I spotted a beautiful witch hazel tree near my apartment building in North Cleveland Park, DC. It was indeed a moment of joy. Spring is coming!”

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