By Jodie Symonds
SILVAN tulip grower Paul Tesselaar and his team have been busy planting an extra 150,000 tulips for this year’s Tesselaar Tulip Festival.
In its 63rd year, the event will display a sea of 900,000 colourful flowers during 9 September and 6 October.
Mr Tesselaar said the theme for this year’s event was Tulips Down Under.
“It’s about people enjoying and looking at what we’ve got in Australia,” Mr Tesselaar said.
“It’ll feature a sculpture competition with an Australiana focus.”
The sculptures will be placed throughout the tulip fields for visitors to look at.
Mr Tesselaar said the Australiana theme was inspired by his grandparents, who moved from Australia from the Netherlands in 1939.
“They began growing tulips once they moved here, and it’s about our history I suppose,” he said.
The extra thousands of tulips weren’t too much trouble for the Tesselaars to plant.
“We were already planting 750,000 so I thought: “Why not plant another 150,000?” he said.
Event favourites including the children’s days, Turkish, Dutch and Irish weekends and the food, wine and jazz weekend will all be back this year.
“While we have all of the other entertainment, the tulips are undoubtedly the star of the show,” Mr Tesselaar said.
“They’re absolutely captivating at their best.”
Tickets cost $26 for adults and children under 16 are free.
For more information, or to book early, visit www.trybooking.com.
