Surrey’s Holland Park is now blooming with 700 red and white tulips symbolizing a special friendship between Canada and the Netherlands.
Last fall, the City of Surrey was one of 140 municipalities selected to plant a Dutch-Canadian Friendship Tulip Garden distributed by the Canadian Garden Council to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands from the Second World War.
“The tulips in Holland Park not only enhance our city’s beauty and culture but they also represent a meaningful and long-standing friendship between our country and the Netherlands,” said Mayor Linda Hepner. “We thank all the partners that helped make this project happen including the Canadian Garden Council, Vesey’s Bulbs and Canada Post.”
Surrey’s Holland Park is one of the 140 Dutch-Canadian Friendship Gardens planted Canada as listed in www.canadasgardenroute.ca.
“Surrey is proud to be chosen as one of the communities to plant a Dutch-Canadian Friendship Garden,” said Councillor Bruce Hayne. “We encourage our residents to come see these special tulips in Holland Park as they are now in bloom.”
In the spring of 1946, 100,000 tulips bloomed in Ottawa. Planted the previous fall, the Dutch tulip bulbs were sent to Canadians as a symbol of appreciation for the role Canadian soldiers played in the liberation of the Netherlands and the hospitality Canada provided to the Dutch Royal Family in Ottawa, where Princess Margriet was born, during WWII.
