San Francisco’s Union Square will be blanketed with a vibrant sea of tulips that are free for the taking next month. The annual spectacle, a nod to International Women’s Day, takes place on March 9 and is part of the city’s springtime tradition known as San Francisco Flower Bulb Day. Residents and visitors are invited to gather a bouquet of up to eight tulips in the heart of the city’s retail district.
The pop-up garden will showcase 80,000 tulip bulbs imported from the Netherlands and cultivated in Arcata (Humboldt County). The inspiration for the event stems from the tradition in Amsterdam, where Dam Square bursts into a kaleidoscope of colors with hundreds of thousands of flowers for 15,000 people annually, according to the Consulate General of the Netherlands.
The event, scheduled for 1-4:30 p.m., draws massive crowds, with tulips known to vanish well before the official closing time. Last year, the Chronicle reported organizers had to disperse a crowd of thousands by 3 p.m. Despite the availability of free flowers, the event is not a free-for-all, and each attendee will be allocated a five-minute window in the tulip field.
San Francisco Flower Bulb Day has become a viral phenomenon on social media, with those lucky enough to pick a bouquet posing for photos on the terraces of Union Square while clutching orange, pink, and yellow flowers. To further spur engagement, organizers have initiated a “Show Us Your Tulips’ Journey Home” social media contest, urging participants to share their photos on various platforms for a chance to win prizes.
Read more at sfchronicle.com