Canadian Tulip Festival
| Canadian Tulip Festival | |
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Tulips from the 2006 Tulip Festival.
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| Genre | Horticultural |
| Dates | 3 weekends in May |
| Location(s) | National Capital Region (Canada) |
| Years active | 1953–present |
| Website | |
| www.tulipfestival.ca | |
| 1994 | A Tribute to the Origin Country of the Tulip - Turkey |
| 1995 | The Friendship That Flowered
50th anniversary of the Liberation of the Netherlands |
| 1996 | Floral Tribute to Nice |
| 1997 | Floral Artistry of Japan |
| 1998 | A Celebration of Canada's Provinces and Territories |
| 1999 | Between Friends |
| 2000 | Tulips 2000: A Capital Celebration! |
| 2001 | Tulips Forever! A Salute to Britain |
| 2002 | Tulipmania! 50th Anniversary |
| 2003 | G’day Australia – Tulips Down Under |
| 2004 | Canada’s Tulip Experience |
| 2005 | A Celebration of Peace and Friendship |
| 2006 | Tulips 2006 – World Flower Rendezvous! |
| 2007 | "CelebrIDÉE A Celebration of Ideas" inaugural year |
| 2008 | Where Ideas Bloom |
| 2009 | The Tulip Route |
| 2010 | "Liberation" - The 65th anniversary of the liberation of Europe. |
| 2011 | "Kaleidoscope" - A celebration of Spring awakening through colour, culture and community |
The Canadian Tulip Festival (French: Festival Canadien des Tulipes; Dutch: Canadese Festival van de Tulp) is a tulip festival, held annually in May in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The festival claims to be the world's largest tulip festival, displaying over one million tulips, with attendance of over 500,000 visitors annually. Large displays of tulips are planted throughout the city, and the largest display of tulips is found in Commissioners Park on the shores of Dow's Lake, and along the Rideau Canal with 300,000 tulips planted there alone. As well as tulip displays, the festival also includes music performances, speakers and exhibits of international cuisine.
In 1945, the Dutch royal family sent 100,000 tulip bulbs to Ottawa in gratitude for Canadians having sheltered Princess Juliana and her daughters for the preceding three years during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, in the Second World War.
The most noteworthy event during their time in Canada was the birth in 1943 of Princess Margriet to Princess Juliana at the Ottawa Civic Hospital. The maternity ward was temporarily declared to be extraterritorial by the Canadian government, thereby allowing Princess Margriet's citizenship to be solely influenced by her mother's Dutch citizenship. In 1946, Juliana sent another 20,500 bulbs requesting that a display be created for the hospital, and promised to send 10,000 more bulbs each year.
In the years following Queen Juliana's original donation, Ottawa became famous for its tulips and in 1953 the Ottawa Board of Trade and photographer Malak Karsh organized the first "Canadian Tulip Festival". Queen Juliana returned to celebrate the festival in 1967, and Princess Margriet returned in 2002 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the festival.
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