The Hever Castle Tulip Festival

On Sunday morning Mark and I jumped in the car and headed out of London to Hever Castle.  IF the name rings a bell it is the same castle where Mark and I got engaged.   While that was over 10 months ago I still have two dozen photos of the gorgeous property sitting in a folder to upload but that never happened.  Well, better late than never – here is an extremely delayed tour of Hever castle with a special twist, the Hever Castle Tulip Festival! Every year the property plants thousands of tulips and when I read about this last year I flagged the rough dates on my calendar.  Thus, when I checked that their website earlier this Spring and saw that the peak blooming period this year was supposed to be from April 19th to 30th I booked tickets. 

The weather forecast said overcast but as you can see it was mostly blue skies which made for an enjoyable stroll around the gardens.  Plus with 20mph winds and a cool temperature we needed every ray of sunshine we could get.   The leaflet about the Hever Castle tulip festival shared that every year the head gardener selects the palette for the season and mixes the bulbs to create different patterns and color combinations.   While it may be a hard to see in the photos  the most common tulip this year was the Apeldoorn Elite and over 3,500 tulips alone were planted around the castle crating a gorgeous crimson and bright yellow barrier between the moat and the stone walls. 

I am not a flower expert but besides the Apeldoorn Elite there were apparently many more varieties of flowers including parrot, Darwin, peony and triumph tulips.  According to the official map over 25,000 tulips were planted around the castle and gardens and we had a great time exploring the ground, diving into our picnic, and enjoying the fresh air.   You can read more about the Tulip festival here and if you get the chance, I suggest you head down for a visit!