Imagine a well-known San Francisco city park brimming with bright, cheerful tulips...and you are invited to bring a bouquet home, for free. That’s what’s happening in March in honor of International Women’s Day, as reported by SF Funcheap. Union Square, the historic hub encircled by upscale shops and a landmark hotel, will host Flower Bulb Day on March 4.
That means 80,000 tulips grown in America from European bulbs will cover the city square. A video on Anthos's event website—this Netherlands-based company represents traders in bulbs and nursery stock—shows a previous iteration of Flower Bulb Day at Union Square, then called American Tulip Day. On that day, 10,000 tulips were grouped by color in milk crates on the ground, and visitors were seen selecting the blooms one by one and forming a bouquet within a provided bag. One happy person told the camera, “If you buy tulips, you buy spring”—but of course, these bouquets are free.
So how big a bouquet can you pick? You are limited to 15 tulips per person, which is very generous: more than a dozen for a full-color spot! The pop-up tulip garden opens at 1pm and closes by 4:30pm, so there’s plenty of time to linger, Instagram the beauty and select the best brightness to go home with.
According to the website, European traders export bulbs to more than 100 countries worldwide, and America is the biggest buyer of tulip bulbs: half-billion annually. We also buy export bulbs like lilies, hyacinths, daffodils, dahlias and gladioli.
Tulips are not just varied by color; they also take different shapes: single-flowered (with the normal six petals), double-flowered (bred to have more petals and be a more blowsy, peony-like flower), lily flowered (the ones shaped like a goblet with sharply pointed petals) and fringed (the petal edges are fringed rather than clean-edged). And if you’re interested in speaking the flower’s language, the colors do have meaning: a red tulip represents love and passion, orange stands for spiritual connection and understanding, yellow stands for happiness (although it used to stand for jealousy—but who wants that in a vase?), purple for being royal or chichi, pink for well wishes or congratulations, and white for forgiveness or a milestone such as a fresh start or, conversely, a funeral. And a mixed bunch? Elegance.