Nanaimo Awarded Friendship Tulip Garden

City of Nanaimo awarded 

70th Anniversary Dutch-Canadian Friendship Tulip Garden

Celebrating the first Dutch gift of tulips to Canadians

Nanaimo is the lucky recipient of one of 140, 70th Anniversary Dutch-Canadian Friendship Tulip Gardens being distributed across Canada in celebration of the first gift of 100,000 Dutch tulip bulbs sent to Canadians in 1945 as a symbol of appreciation for the role Canadian soldiers played in the liberation of the Netherlands and the hospitality Canada provided to the Dutch Royal Family in Ottawa during WWII.

Veterans, school children and the public are invited to attend the planting ceremony on Wednesday, November 4 at 1:00 pm where the story of the Dutch princess born in Ottawa during WWII and the history of the enduring friendship bond between Canada and the Netherlands will be retold so that it may live on for future generations.

The City of Nanaimo would like to thank all those who make this program possible: Canadian Garden Council, Vesey’s Bulbs, Canada Post, National Capital Commission, Canadian Tulip Festival, Canadian Nursery Landscape Association, Garden Making magazine, Chimpanzee, Baxter Travel Media, Enterprise Canada, Gardens BC, Québec Gardens’ Association and the Ontario Garden Tourism Coalition.

Our garden, and the other 139 gardens planted across the country, will be symbolically linked to a 70th Anniversary Dutch-Canadian Friendship Tulip Garden to be planted this fall in our nation’s capital by the National Capital Commission and showcased during the 2016 Canadian Tulip Festival.

"We feel very fortunate to have received one of these Gardens as we understand that the Canadian Garden Council, the organization behind the Friendship Tulip Garden program, received more than 400 applications.  The garden, consisting of 700 red and white tulip bulbs, generously donated by Vesey’s Bulbs of PEI, will be planted on November 4 at the Cenotaph."  -  Councillor Ian Thorpe