Tulip Festival in Ottawa - we saved a little baby princess!

The History Of The Canadian Tulip Festival (taken from www.tulipfestival.ca/en/FestivalHistory/)

Queen Juliana of the Netherlands 1909 - 2004

The Canadian Tulip Festival pays tribute to Queen Juliana who will always be remembered in a special way for her Gift of Tulips to the Canadian people. Thanks to her, the Tulip Legacy holds a very important place in Canadian history and is particularly celebrated by Ottawa and Gatineau residents. She is, in many ways, responsible for the creation of the Canadian Tulip Festival.

A celebration founded on friendship. The Canadian Tulip Festival has grown into the largest tulip festival in the world from a gift of thanks given five decades ago. In the fall of 1945, Princess Juliana of the Netherlands presented Ottawa with 100,000 tulip bulbs. The gift was given in appreciation of the safe haven which Holland's exiled royal family received during the Second World War and in recognition of the role which Canadian troops played in liberating the Netherlands.

The tulips have become an important symbol of international friendship and the beauty of spring. They also have special meaning to the people of Canada's Capital Region. During the war, the Dutch royal family was hosted at Government House in Ottawa. Princess Margriet was born at the Ottawa Civic Hospital. The floral gift that began in 1945 has established this region as "The Tulip Capital of North America".

A few years after the Dutch tulips arrived in 1945, they became a strong attraction. Stunning pictures were appearing in newspapers nationwide. More and more events began to centre around the annual bloom of tulips.
The first Canadian Tulip Festival was held in 1953. The Ottawa Board of Trade, at the suggestion of world renowned photographer Malak Karsh whose photographs have immortalized the tulip, formalized the Canadian Tulip Festival to coincide with the tulip's annual bloom. In the next 10 years the Festival grew in size, with a staggering display of over two million flowers.

Each spring, the National Capital Commission (NCC) is the official 'guardian' and designer of the national capital's gardens by managing the colourful splendour and stunning display of millions of tulips, creating a magnificent backdrop for the Canadian Tulip Festival. The NCC is responsible for many of the impressive flower beds and green spaces found throughout the region located on Parliament Hill, along Confederation Boulevard and the Capital's scenic parkways and recreational pathways, in front of national museums and institutions and along the historic Rideau Canal.

The most spectacular display of tulips is found in Commissioners Park, the official site of the Canadian Tulip Festival located at Dows Lake and near the Rideau Canal, where the NCC plants more than 300,000 tulips each year. Commissioners Park is also home of the Tulip Legacy Exhibit, an exhibit implemented by the NCC explaining the history of the Dutch Royal Family's refuge during the World War II and the contribution of Canadian troops in the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944-45.