Visitors pick bouquets at Tulip Day 2024. Photo courtesy of Royal Anthos.
This winter introduced “snowcrete” into our vocabulary, but warmer days are on the way. In celebration of spring, around 150,000 tulips are coming to the National Mall on March 15, and visitors can pick free bouquets from 11:15 AM to 4:15 PM.
Washington’s first Tulip Day is organized by the Embassy of the Netherlands and Royal Anthos, a Dutch trade association for flower bulb growers and nurseries. “We are trying to symbolize the tulip fields we know so well at home,” says Royal Anthos CEO Mark-Jan Terwindt. The faux flower fields have also popped up in San Francisco and New York City.
Tulips will be available in hues of red, pink, orange, yellow, and white, and each person can gather up to 10 stems. In honor of the country’s semiquincentennial, the DC display will emphasize the number 250.
The tulip bulbs come from the Netherlands, and they’re being grown in Virginia and New Jersey. Bulbs will still be attached to the stems on Tulip Day. To help the blooms last, Terwindt recommends placing the flowers in a vase and covering the bulb with some water or putting the cut stems in a vase with two inches of cold water.
Editorial Fellow
Dara Mathis is a journalist and nonfiction writer who joined Washingtonian in Fall 2025 as an Editorial Fellow. A 2024 recipient of the American Mosaic Journalism Prize, she resides in Prince George’s County, Maryland.
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