WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY), NC — It may only be Christmas but Airlie Gardens is already preparing for the Spring, planting tulips one bulb at a time.
Although some areas of the gardens look pretty bare now, come spring it will be blooming with thousands of tulips. For the past few weeks, employees and volunteers have been drilling holes and filling them one by one with bulbs.
Bulbs, imported from Holland that will grow to be beautiful tulips in various shapes and colors. This specific flower is the only kind that need to be planted during the winter.
However, Airlie Gardens Landscape Technician John Halbert says Hurricane Matthew made planting them a little more difficult this year.
“We have to prep the area, kinda clean it up and with Matthew it was a little more work this year. Then we come in and drill as you saw earlier, and get down on hands and knees and start planting, cover them up and cross our fingers,” Halbert said.
Crossing their fingers in hopes that they will be ready to bloom by late March, early April, just in time for spring festivities.
So far nearly 50,000 tulips have been planted by the Airlie Gardens staff and volunteers.