Tulip Town Bulb Company to celebrate 10th anniversary

So far, conditions look promising, thanks to wet weather in the fall and heavy snowfall earlier this spring. Brett and Nora Mulder, owners of Tulip Town Blub Company, said they were loving the cooler weather in early April because it holds the tulips back.

The Mulders have a window of three days for their tulips to be in their prime bloom during the festival, which takes place May 19 to 21. They plant early, mid and late bloom varieties of tulips. The single late tulips are usually in bloom during the festival, Brett Mulder said.

"What we want is good moisture in the soil -- we wanted that in the fall and also in the spring," he said. "In the fall they start to begin to take root and then again in the spring there's another root system that develops. If one of those is deficient you won't have as good of tulips."

Some years, Brett Mulder said the tulips don't bloom until Memorial Day, other years they've bloomed too early, resulting in a "stem fest."

"We're pretty confident we'll have some tulips in bloom this year, it's just maybe they'll be a little over their peak," he said. "We try to have about four weeks of color going on at the garden."

Cooler temperatures and little to no wind, he said, will help the tulips keep their petals for an additional week.

PREPARING FOR TULIP TIME

The Mulders, longtime Orange City residents, purchased the Vander Wel Tulip Test Gardens in 2006. They changed the location and renamed the business Tulip Town Bulb Company.

Tulip Town Bulb Company offers a wide range of tulips, which are imported from the Netherlands. The third week in October, the Mulders plant 3,500 tulip bulbs in their display garden, 116 First Street SW. They also supply the City of Orange City with tulip bulbs.

"At Tulip Festival we try to have about 50 to 60 different varieties of tulips that they can see," Brett Mulder said. "Then they place orders in the fall. They're fulfilled in September and October."

There are more than 1,000 different varieties of tulips, according to Brett Mulder. He said cross-pollinating produces different colors. Because of this, he said tulips aren't as durable as they used to be.

"Most people look at tulips these days as more of an annual type of a flower," he said. "We usually tell customers two to three good years that they'll see them, then they have to start doing a little more work."

That work includes digging up the bulbs and separating some of the baby bulbs from the primary bulb.

"A lot of it's just after the bulb blooms in the spring to let them die out naturally, get that energy to go back to the bulb and try to prepare for the next year's bloom," he said.

Nora Mulder said what's blooming during the Tulip Festival is what's most popular with customers. That's generally a mix of tall, traditional single late tulips in colors such as red, white, purple, pink and yellow. Last year, the second most popular type was the Toyota, a red-and-white tulip. The third most popular was the Dordogne, a pink tulip brushed with orange.

"They were perfect last year, that's why we sold a lot of those," Brett Mulder said of the Dordogne.

While there isn't a type of tulip named for Orange City, Brett Mulder said a special Midnight Mix will be available for purchase in celebration of Tulip Town Bulb Company's 10th anniversary. The mix includes the Renown, a deep pink tulip; the Queen of Night, a dark purple tulip that almost looks black; and the Maureen, a creamy white tulip.

Piet Stuifbergen, president of Stuifbergen Flowerbulb Export of Holland, the Mulders' tulip bulb supplier, will be on hand May 20 to answer questions about taking care of bulbs. Nora Mulder also added that an oversized pair of wooden shoes will be located outside of Tulip Town Bulb Company during the festival.

"We're going to have a big pair of wooden shoes people can stand in and take pictures by the tulips -- that will be new this year," she said.