2012 – Tulips at Dow’s Lake, Ottawa

2012 – Tulips at Dow’s Lake, Ottawa

May 11, 2012 – Since returning from our Pennsylvania trip I have been sorting through Pennsylvania images and looking out the window at generally overcast skies and rainy weather so hadn’t got down to Dow’s Lake to see this year’s tulip display.  The clouds finally cleared though and off we went for a look at the tulip beds. Given the warmer than usual Spring and the seasonal lateness of my visit, I expected that most of the tulips would have been past their blooming period.  Although some of the beds were finished, I was pleasantly surprised to find that many of the beds still had plenty of colour. There were also plenty of cars in the parking lot and plenty of people of the walkways showing that the tulip beds still are a powerful tourist draw and a nice reason to get out and enjoy the sunshine.

Some of the flower beds were definitely finished for the season and the double-flowering tulips, although still colourful from a distance were showing their age when viewed up close. In some of the beds, individual blossoms still shone all alone.

 

I was really surprised at the height of the Perestroyka tulip.

Tulips were not the only things that one could photograph on this pleasant day. Euphorbia were in full bloom, the rock gardens of neighborhood houses had plenty of colour to delight and, along the shoreline, goslings were picking at grass under the watchful eye of their parents.

After a nice lunch at one of the Dow’s Lake pavilion restaurants, we headed over to the experimental farm where the apple trees were coming out in bloom, the dwarf irises were just beginning their bloom cycle and the last of the magnolias were still flowering in the more shaded locations.

Links to images of previous Ottawa tulip festivals.

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