Albany Tulip Festival planting begins

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — We are still months away from the Albany Tulip Festival, but the planting has begun. Volunteers were at Washington Park on Saturday morning, planting hundreds of bulbs that will spring into bloom by May of next year.

“The idea of putting those in at the end of the season after all of the beautiful summer colors have come out,” Jeff Crumpton, President of Washington Park Conservancy, said. “It puts the park in a bit of hibernation.”

And each bulb is planted carefully on the ground to help create each design.

“So then once we come into spring, this coming year…it’s going to look fantastic. It always does,” Crumpton said.

Jenna Ditinno, City Gardner for Albany, is behind the designs that make the festival look fantastic. And she says that she will soon start designing for the Tulip Festival in 2025.

“So we get done with the tulips in November, and then from December to February, we’re doing snow removal, and between that, I have my notebook with all my designs,” she said.

Her well-detailed ideas show where each color and placement will help create a stunning set of tulips. Olivia Owens, Albany Tulip Queen, and Court were also there to help with the planting efforts.

“We decided this year to design it as a tulip,” Owens said. “So, planting tulips in the shape of a tulip to represent the Tulip Court.”

For Robin Leffler, she drove from Long Island to be with her sister-in-law, Jenn Leffler, to honor her brother Teddy Leffler, who passed away last month.

“Yeah, Ted loved the tulips,” Jenn Leffler said. “He loved this garden. He posted pictures all over his Facebook of tulips every year. So, we all decided to come here to celebrate him and participate in planting.”

But no matter the reason, each person was able to plant a bulb that will soon bloom into a gorgeous design to help represent the revival of spring for the next Tulip Festival.