PELLA, Iowa — The cold winter-like weather has many Iowans yearning for warmth. In Pella, however, the people are cold but not the tulips.  Pella’s annual Tulip Time is under three weeks away. It will take place May 5th, 6th, and 7th.

“This cold weather keeps them from coming up too fast they’re still going to be growing because they respond to the lengthening days as well as the warm weather,” said Valerie Van Kooten, Director of the Pella Historical Society which runs the Tulip Time Celebration. “You know you don’t have to worry about them unless they’re fully blooming, I mean they they they have their own sort of antifreeze that kind of keeps them good as long as they’re still in the bud.”

The tulips are planted so the bloom is staggered as to when the colors come out. 

“Unless it was a good be a really hard freeze but many our tulips  are sort of in secluded protected areas so they’re not going to get a hard freeze,” said Van Kooten. “There will be probably still some in the bud, or later bloomers but we already have some the early bloomers over at Scholte House so I think you’re going to see a really nice variety at Tulip Time.

This is year is the first time since COVID where the celebration will be returning to normal.

“Well it’s so great to have parades back every day at 2:30 and 830,” said Van Kooten. “We’ll be having our Dutch Dancers, our Street Scrubbers, and our entire program again, the Queen and Court Coronation, so much that we haven’t been able to do the last couple of years and so it’s just it feels more like a normal Tulip Time.” 

The prediction is the cold will help the tulips to be near full boom, during the celebration.

“Tulips really don’t pay attention to date so much as it as they do weather and light. so come and they’re gonna be beautiful,” said Van Kooten.