Each year, the City of Boulder Parks and Recreation Department (BPR) partners with the Downtown Boulder Partnership to provide free tulip bulbs to the community.

This year, the city has teamed up with ten Downtown Boulder Partnership member businesses to hand out the free bags of bulbs when they open: Ana's Art Gallery, Bohemi, The Hat Cart (1300 block of Pearl Street), Organic Sandwich Company, OZO Coffee Company (East and West End Pearl Street locations), Pedestrian Shops (Pearl Street location), R Gallery + Wine Bar, Savvy on Pearl, and Terracotta.

Interested residents may visit any one of the participating locations to pick up a free bag of bulbs on August 23 when each shop opens. A donation to the PLAY Boulder Foundation, which supports parks and recreation opportunities for everyone in our community, will be encouraged at pickup.

Tulip bulbs will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis and limited to one bag per family.

BPR has been hosting this free event for community members since 2006 with the goal of sustaining beautiful and unique tulip spring blooms on the Pearl Street Mall while providing an opportunity for interested gardeners to enhance their homes and public spaces through local resources. Parks staff remove tulip bulbs throughout the summer and save them for this event when they make space for other flowers.

The history of tulips on the Pearl Street Mall is a rich one. The tradition started in the late 1970s, when Boulder’s then sister city, Meppel, Holland, would send 5,000 tulip bulbs annually to be planted along the Mall. A form of this tradition continues to this day when every fall BPR plants 15,000 brand new tulip bulbs that are imported directly from Holland.