150,000 tulips planted in rural northern Catalonia

In the small town of Coforb, surrounded by mountains and fields in the Berguedà region of northern Catalonia, three local and Dutch entrepreneurs have planted over 150,000 tulips. 

The project, called Tulipmania Barcelona, aims to create a floral tourist attraction which will encourage more visitors to the region. The park will be split into two sections; the ‘show garden’, where people can view the impressive display, and the ‘pick up garden’, where people can collect their own flowers to take home.

Tulipmania also plans to host a variety of events, from flower workshops to food and wine tastings and even potentially yoga sessions. In the future, the space plans to host larger gatherings such as weddings and communions, however for the time being they are complying with the current Covid-19 restrictions in place and only organizing “micro-events”. 

Currently, there are 25 different varieties of tulip in bloom, however once they start to wilt as the end of spring approaches, the plan is to plant other flowers, such as dahlias, to replace them. The organizers also plan to expand their growing area even further, aiming to extend the park to two hectares of land. 

Last year’s pilot

In 2020, Tulipmania ran a pilot planting 15,000 bulbs in order to see if their flowers would be able to flourish in the conditions. One of the promoters, Seila Malo, explained to the Catalan News Agency that “it went very well”, and that the flowers “adapted very well to the terrain”. 

Malo elaborated that tulips need good soil drainage, low temperatures in winter and a moderate spring, conditions which are met in the Berguedà region of Catalonia.