There’s no sense in tip-toeing through the issue.
The awe-inspiring tulip display — 10,000-to-15,000 flowers strong — that graces the Denver Botanic Gardens’ annual garden each April and May won’t happen this year. Even worse, it likely won’t return until 2029.
Blame a nasty case of “tulip fire,” a common but destructive fungal disease that spreads through spores in soil and can cause tulips to wilt and die, said Gardens spokeswoman Erin Bird.
“About every other year, our horticulturalists swap out the bulbs with different varieties of tulips and different colors so that the display isn’t the same each season,” she explained. “In 2024, they noticed that the tulips weren’t looking as good as they usually do, and last year, they were in an even more dire situation. Some didn’t even bloom at all.”
The daffodils were in full bloom at the end of March 2026 at the Denver Botanic Gardens. They are taking the place of tulips in the annuals garden due to a tulip blight. (Erin Bird/Denver Botanic Gardens)
Most of the tulips at the Gardens come from Europe, and Bird said one of their vendors may have unknowingly sent blighted bulbs in the fall of 2023. (Tulip bulbs are typically planted in the fall and bloom in the spring.)
The good news is that tulip fire doesn’t spread through the air, so it didn’t affect the smaller tulip displays at the Gardens, including the ones out front, which aren’t changed out as often. It also doesn’t affect other kinds of flowers, so instead of tulips, the annuals garden includes thousands of daffodils, hyacinths and lilies this year — and they are peaking right now.
“It’s still very beautiful and springy – but void of tulips,” Bird added.
There’s additional bad news, though: Plant and soil experts recommend waiting for three years before replanting in an area that has suffered tulip blight, even if all of the soil is changed out. As a result, the Gardens won’t replant tulip bulbs in the annuals garden until the fall of 2028 for blooms in spring of 2029.
“We’ve gotten a lot of sad face emojis and disappointment,” Bird said about the reaction to the tulip news on the Gardens’ social media pages. “In the springtime, it’s one of the most common questions we get on social media, or by people calling, or at the visitors’ desk. We anticipated that, and made sure front-of-house staff knew what to say.”
But Bird pointed out that there are plenty of other reasons to visit the Gardens right now since spring came about a month early. In addition to the daffodils, the lilacs are also blooming. “It has been wild. The peonies will probably be next, and then we will move into the big summer blooms,” which will include bold displays of dahlias in the annuals garden.
“It has been a really unique spring, ” she added. “You get to see everything in its peak all at once.”
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, In The Know, to get entertainment news sent straight to your inbox.
Comments are closed.