Talking Tulips at Grand Geneva

19 Apr, 2017

More than 30,000 tulips and daffodils will emerge from their winter slumber to pepper Grand Geneva Resort & Spa’s 1,300 acres with an explosive array of color by the end of April. Our Grounds Maintenance crew carefully coordinates the long-awaited show of blooms, lasting only a few weeks. After they’ve bloomed, the tulips are tilled under to make room for the 40,000 annuals that are planted in late May.

Spring flowers greet you around the bends on your way down Grand Geneva Way. Yellow and white daffodils sprout up starting in late March and by May, the bare trees are full of sprouting greens and the beds are blooming with new growth. Usually, tulips can be left in the soil after they bloom where they’ll hide out until next spring, but to ensure 100 percent of the bulbs will blossom each spring, new bulbs are buried every November.

One week it looks like this.

Next week it looks like this!

Paul Showalter, Grounds Superintendent for Grand Geneva, starts to design the tulip beds in August. The bulbs are ordered in September and delivered in October. It takes four to six grounds maintenance workers two weeks in November to plant all of the tulip bulbs before the ground freezes. The flowers are selected according to color and height and planted in a specific design to deliver the best “wow” factor with the tallest blooms in the center. When the tulips all bloom at the same time, the sight is breathtaking.

“Paul and his team know what they are doing,” said Jim Crothers, Grand Geneva’s Director of Facilities, about maintaining the garden beds that cover the massive resort. He’s seen over 30 springs at the resort. “The tulips fill a nice void between the seasons before the annuals go in. And from there on, it’s nonstop.”

The tulips are a sight to see and we hope you’ll take a drive to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin to experience it yourself.