ORANGE CITY, Iowa (KTIV) -
The mild weather has also tricked tulips in Orange City, Iowa. Folks behind the city's annual tulip festival say you shouldn't worry because they say they have a plan for anything Mother Nature throws at them.
At Mulder's Tulip Town, owner Brett Mulder says some of the tulips are coming up in the beds already but they've also planted some late varieties. He says they import over 50 different varieties from Holland, and plant them in October. When the soil temperature in the spring gets to around 55-degrees, the tulips start to wake up. He says once the tulips break the dirt, they have around six to eight weeks left.
"Every year we plant thousands of new bulbs and so the newest bulbs have all of that energy in them, they tend to stay back a little bit another week or two than those bulbs that have bloomed in previous years," said Brett Mulder, Mulder's Tulip Town Bulb Company.
Mulder says this is the sixth year they've owned Mulder's Tulip Town Bulb Company. So far, they've had a lot of success.
"We're four for five, 80-percent success getting the tulips to bloom. The first year was a little on the backside but even then we still have a few varieties the Parrots and so forth that are and the Lilies that are still in bloom. It makes me a little nervous but who knows what the next eight weeks can bring," said Mulder.
The 72nd Annual Orange City Tulip Festival is May 17th through the 19th.
