The Abbotsford Tulip Festival is back — and better than ever

The Abbotsford Tulip Festival has been revived.

On Tuesday, Lakeland Flowers owner Nick Warmerdam said 27 acres of tulips — comprised of 70 varieties — had been planted on his Sumas Prairie property and would begin to bloom by April 14 when the festival begins.

The original Abbotsford Tulip Festival was held on a site at the 36000-block of North Parallel Road and was managed by Nick’s daughter Alexis Szarek. The festival was last held in Abbotsford in 2018 and Szarek has now moved to Armstrong where she has set up another flower-growing operation.

Warmerdam said the new festival would be the largest of its kind in Canada and would include kilometres of walking trails, specialty tulip varieties imported from Holland — including fringe and double tulips — plus a legacy tulip to honour his father Peter Warmerdam, a pioneer in commercial flower growing in the Sumas Prairie.