The Friends of Guild Park and Gardens are the lucky recipient of one of 140, 70th Anniversary Dutch-Canadian Friendship Tulip Gardens being distributed across Canada in celebration of the first gift of 100,000 Dutch tulip bulbs sent to Canadians in 1945 as a symbol of appreciation for the role Canadian soldiers played in the liberation of the Netherlands and the hospitality Canada provided to the Dutch Royal Family in Ottawa during WWII.
Public planting ceremony to take place
“We feel very fortunate,” said John Mason, president of Friends of Guild Park and Gardens, “to have received one of these Gardens as we understand that the Canadian Garden Council, the organization behind the Friendship Tulip Garden program, received more than 400 applications. The garden, consisting of 700 red and white tulip bulbs, generously donated by Vesey’s Bulbs of PEI, will be planted on Saturday, October 17, 2015 at 2pm at Guild Park and Gardens. We will meet near the new garden bed near the Terra Cotta gateway at the south end of the garden walkway, near the top of the Bluffs.”
Veterans, school children and the public are invited to attend the planting ceremony where the story of the Dutch princess born in Ottawa during WWII and the history of the enduring friendship bond between Canada and the Netherlands will be retold so that it may live on for future generations.
Symbolic link to a Friendship Tulip Garden in Ottawa
Our garden, and the other 139 gardens planted across the country, will be symbolically linked to a
70th Anniversary Dutch-Canadian Friendship Tulip Garden to be planted this fall in our nation’s
capital by the National Capital Commission and showcased during the 2016 Canadian Tulip Festival.
Our garden will also be featured on the 2016 edition of Canada’s Garden Route, www.canadasgardenroute.ca
It takes a village . . .
The Friends of Guild Park and Gardens would like to thank all those that made this heartwarming program possible: Canadian Garden Council, Vesey’s Bulbs, Canada Post, National Capital Commission, Canadian Tulip Festival, Canadian Nursery Landscape Association, Garden Making magazine, Chimpanzee, Baxter Travel Media, Enterprise Canada, Gardens BC, Québec Gardens’ Association and the Ontario Garden Tourism Coalition.