Ottawa Tulip Festival
Half of my genes are Dutch. My grandparents emigrated from the Netherlands to Canada in 1952. I know very little of their lives before this major move in their lives. I know they lived through the Nazi occupation of their home country and that it impacted them horribly. They never talked of their war experiences, yet I knew that it affected every part of their lives afterward.
The war was a taboo topic. I was so curious, but I knew that it was meant to be forgotten, but I could glean some information. I remember overhearing one story: my grandmother was walking down the street, and some woman made the horrible error of stepping in front of a motorcycle carrying two Gestapo officers. This woman got a beating of her life. Grandma stated that she and everyone else just had to keep walking as if nothing was happening. Had she looked at the tragedy beside her, she would have been a victim of this barbarism.
The Dutch Royal Family escaped the Nazis and hid in Canada. Canada would play a major part in the liberation of the Netherlands. Because of this, each year, thousands of tulips are planted in honour of Canada’s efforts in preserving Dutch heritage and saving Dutch sovereignty. Plus, tulips are my wife’s favourite flower.
From mid-May to early June, the tulips bloom. There are several other areas in Ottawa, and many trees are in full bloom. In Commissioners Park is where you will find more than the typical red and yellow tulips. This park has the largest display of flowers and varieties that will impress the eye. Being a large area, we had room to look for and find every colour and shape.
Each year, the Tulip Festival gets a bit bigger. With 70 years since the liberation of the Netherlands, this festival continues to honour all those that fought and sacrificed to free my grandparents from Nazi tyranny and oppression. I am truly grateful for this. There is little I can do now to commemorate this other than to see the large gift of beauty given to Canada every year with these flowers.
Whenever I go to the Tulip Festival, I check out the smaller locations first and leave the Commissioners Park as the grand finale. I have created a Google Map showing the locations of the tulip displays and other flowering locations. Just zoom into the Ottawa region to see where the tulips can be found.
There is a tulip blooming meter that will show when the tulips are beginning to bloom. At the beginning of May, I am on this page daily and planning my trip to coincide with the most blooms.
We have been to Ottawa many times; it is a beautiful city with so much history and things to do. Ottawa Tourism official page. It is a place that is well worth visiting for a week or more.
I created a FLOWER MAP that shows these and many other locations for flowering trees, flower gardens and greenhouses. This map will constantly be updated when I find more places worth visiting.
