Tulip Festival Opening at West Side Community Garden on April 12

By Lisa Kava

The famed annual Tulip Festival at the West Side Community Garden (WSCG) is officially beginning on April 12th. The garden is located between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues, with entrances on West 89th and 90th Streets.

It is open to the public every day from dawn till dusk.

For just a few weeks, from mid-April until the first week of May, visitors to the garden can see over 100 different varieties of tulips, Judy Robinson, president of WSCG’s board of directors, told West Side Rag.  She encourages multiple visits during this time period.

“The life of an individual tulip flower is about a week to 10 days,” Robinson said. “This means if you come to the garden during the early part of the season, you’ll see many tulips in bloom and many plants with tightly closed buds. If you come back several days later, the tulips you saw on your first trip will be mostly gone, but new varieties will be open.”

WSCG will hold three weekends of “Information Days,” during the 2025 Tulip Festival. On these dates, garden members will be on site from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. to speak with visitors and provide information about the tulips and the garden itself. Information Days will be held on: April 12th -13th,  April 19th– 20th, and April 26th-27th.

Visitors however can see the tulips anytime once they are in bloom. “On weekdays you can see the exact same tulips as on the Festival weekends but in a less crowded setting,” Robinson said.  

WSCG, comprising 1.25 acres of land, was incorporated as a not-for-profit in 1983 by neighborhood residents who began gardening on the empty lot that had previously been part of the West Side Urban Renewal Project of the 1970’s. It had been considered an area in need of “renewal” and buildings were torn down but the lot remained empty for years, becoming a dumping ground for garbage, Robinson explained. The lot, which is now WSCG, includes a flower garden at one end and individually assigned vegetable plots at the other end.

The Tulip Festival was started over 30 years ago by one of WSCG’s founders, Charles Jones, who spearheaded the plan to fill the front of the garden with tulip bulbs each spring. His photo will be posted on the garden’s bulletin board during tulip time, Robinson said. 

The Tulip Festival is the end result of work done by dedicated garden members and community volunteers who plant 13,000 bulbs every November. “This year we planted 70 different tulip varieties in addition to 10 beds which were planted with tulip mixes. A mix usually includes 4 to 7 varieties,” Robinson told the Rag. “Bulb planting weekend is the garden’s single biggest volunteer event of the year and involves strenuous work since the tulips need to be planted 6-8 inches underground.” The bulbs then need 12-16 weeks of cold weather in order to bloom.

WSCG is open to the public every day from approximately 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. in April. It has no paid employees and is run entirely by its volunteer members.

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