This morning, we arose early and made our way to Garfield Park, one of Indianapolis’s city parks. There is an arboretum there and floral gardens whcih are well worth visiting. 10,000 tulips had been planted in the gardens and the authorities wanted to replace them with other seasonal flora and fauna.  The public was invited to come and dig up the tulip bulbs to keep for themselves.

tulip lovers

There were perhaps a hundred people there when we arrived and I half expected that I would need to punch somebody out if I wanted my share of tulip bulbs so I looked around for the oldest and smallest people there. I also asked before taking this picture if anyone had called in sick or was a member of the witness protection program. You can never be too careful with this privacy act stuff. 

They turned us loose at 8:30 and myself, Susie and her sister, ginny made a dash for the tuli[p beds. My fears of a riot were all for naught. The process was very orderly and everyone was well mannered.

Susie and Ginny went one direction and I went another. I picked out a corner and started digging. I sliced the first few bulbs in half before I figured out what I was doing. The person in charge estimated it would take two hours to dig up alll 10,000 bulbs. We were all finished in 45 minutes. 

I learned a lot in that 45 minutes about tulips. I may become a flower gardener. When I was all done, Susie came by to help me carry my bulbs.

I estimate we dug up around 300 bulbs and now comes the hard part; drying them out, storing them and replanting in the fall. In the end, we had a good time and I discovered that tulip diggers make the nicest people.