Pella Tulip Festival underway

PELLA — The annual Pella Tulip Festival gets underway today as the community celebrates its Dutch heritage.

Pella Historical Museum executive director Jessi Galligan says they’ve survived the recent warmer and wetter weather. “It’s been wonderful weather mixed with some not so wonderful weather but the weather can’t stop the fun,” she says.

Some of the tulips did mature and bloom earlier than normal, but there’s still plenty of color for the event. “We plant early, mid and late blooming varieties to extend that,” she says. “Of course Mother Nature has the last word on how things actually end up. So we had tulips blooming already in February, but we still have tulips blooming today, so it was an extraordinarily long blooming season,” Galligan says.

You’ll see a lot of different tulips around the town. “Our early bloomers are for sure done. Our mid bloomers are looking a little rough, they’re on their way out, but our late bloomers are still just perfect,” she says.

The recent storms and rains haven’t dampened the enthusiasm of organizers. “Yeah, tulips are a hearty flower so the rain obviously is good for them and their growth period. If the rain is too heavy and the tulips are on their way out then perhaps that will hasten their petals falling,” she says. “But you know, we’ve gotten a decent amount of rain, nowhere near what some other communities in Iowa have gotten. But it really hasn’t hurt him too bad the ones that are still looking good or are still looking good.”

The Tulip Festival will also have the old favorite foods, parades and other events, along with some new things. “We are excited to have a brand new mural set up between the Vermeer Windmill and the entrance to the gift shop, “Welcome to Tulip Time”, so make sure you get your picture there. And I know a couple other new murals have popped up around the community sponsored by other organizations in town so make sure you check out all the murals in town. And I believe with this new one there will be four around the community to check out,” Galligan says.

The events run through Saturday. You can find the complete schedule at pellahistorical.org.