Color-packed tulip fields welcome the season with vibrant displays
BY RADONNA FIORINI | PHOTOS BY CHRISTINE PETKOV
What better way to bid goodbye to winter than to meander through a field of tulips? Especially if those tulips are planted in the shape of a butterfly and a hummingbird.
Now’s your chance! For the second year, Exploration Acres is hosting Tulip Days, a three-week celebration of this cheerful flower that has long been a symbol of perfect love and rebirth. For people of a certain age, Tiny Tim’s campy and inexplicably popular 1968 song “Tiptoe Through the Tulipsˮ also comes to mind, but wandering, ambling or strolling through the eight acres of blooms is also completely appropriate.
Tim Fitzgerald, who co-owns Exploration Acres along with his sister Mary Branstetter, says Tulip Days is an effort to offer an educational and entertaining event in the spring at the venue that has hosted a corn maze each fall since 2008. The 15-acre corn maze now attracts more than 45,000 people annually and includes a pumpkin patch, hayrides, fire pits and other activities on land southeast of Lafayette that was the Fitzgerald family farm.
Tulip Days is a less expansive offering without many add-ons, but it offers a unique opportunity to see 55 varieties of tulips sprouting from more than 600,000 bulbs. Fitzgerald hopes to open Tulip Days in mid-April and welcome guests for at least three weeks. The opening date will be determined by unpredictable spring weather, and if coolish temperatures prevail and the blooms are still coming, the season might be extended. The event is a somewhat risky business proposition for Fitzgerald and company.
“One tragic weather event and there’s no return on our investment,” he says, adding that in 2025, rain plagued Tulip Days for two of the three weeks the flowers were blooming. In spite of the inclement weather, some 13,000 people came out to take pictures and harvest blooms to take home. Visitors came from throughout the region including Kokomo and Indianapolis, and Fitzgerald is lowering ticket prices this year after receiving feedback from guests. The weather did not deter Lorralyn Wallen and her boyfriend from visiting Tulip Days last year, and since they attended the final week of the event, the paths were dry and the weather decent.
“I love flowers and I’m always looking for local, easy and cheap things to do around Lafayette,” Wallen says. “When I saw the ads on Facebook, we decided to go.”
Wallen noticed tulip varieties she had not seen before and says the butterfly design in which the flowers were planted was very full and colorful. The paths were wide and easy to navigate, and she enjoyed taking a bouquet home.
“We spent about 40 minutes there and although it was a little chilly, it was so pretty and really enjoyable,” she says. “I cut about six tulips in a mix of colors to take home.”
For the 2026 event, some 300,000 tulip bulbs were planted last fall in the shape of a hummingbird across a four-acre field. Grass was planted between flower beds to form walkable paths. Because tulips usually bloom more than one year, the 2025 butterfly field should also be resplendent with a variety of colors and forms, including yellows, pinks, reds and some with feathery and variegated petals.
The mastermind behind the field designs and actual planting is Shawn Stolworthy, owner of Mazeplay, an Idaho-based company that designs and plants corn mazes across the country and has expanded into designing flower fields. Stolworthy has worked with Fitzgerald from the beginning of Exploration Acres and says the interest in tulip fields is expanding.
“We’ve been doing tulip fields for about five years, and a lot of people really like them,” he says, adding that Mazeplay has designed fields in eight states, including Indiana.
“We figure out the best bulb varieties for each area and create designs that will make a neat display that is interactive.”
After using computer programs to design the display, Mazeplay brings special equipment in to plant the bulbs and create a parklike area with walking paths.
“These kinds of displays really haven’t been done before, so walking through them and enjoying the flowers is a unique experience,” says Stolworthy. “Because tulips are not very tall, you can see a lot of the design from the ground.”
As with any agricultural endeavor, including agro-tourism, weather determines the outcome. Early spring flowers are particularly susceptible to changeable weather: a late, hard freeze can kill the buds, but unseasonably warm weather means the blooms come early and don’t last long. Tulip bulbs need extended cold and plenty of winter moisture to produce good blooms, so the outcome of the event is really up to Mother Nature.
Each flower blooms for about 10 days but because the many tulip varieties produce blooms at different times, guests will likely not see all the varieties flowering at once, Fitzgerald says. About 20% of the planted bulbs bloom early, around 60% are intermediate bloomers, and the remaining 20% bloom later, so a repeat visit will provide new vistas of color and form.
But guests likely will see all the stages of growth a tulip bloom goes through, from the emerging bud to full bloom to falling petals, providing a good learning opportunity for children. If the weather is on the cool side, the show may extend further into May.
Each bed of tulips containing the same type of bulb will include markers identifying the variety, and a map of the field’s design also will list varieties, Fitzgerald says. Part of the designs include beds of mixed varieties for an explosion of color.
Scissors are available for guests to cut their own bouquet, with flowers priced by the stem. This year, vases and pastel containers will be available for purchase, or people can bring their own.
While Tulip Days does not offer other activities, guests will be able to take pictures with fun props in the fields such as a giant picture frame, a Dutch windmill, giant chair, and butterfly wings. A frame with the words “Class of 2026” makes the flower field a great place for senior pictures, Fitzgerald says. Children are welcome at Tulip Days and those younger than two get in free, but Fitzgerald emphasizes that no playgrounds are open and there are no special activities for kids. Portable toilets will be available near the fields, and the permanent bathrooms will be open, although those are a distance away.
Food trucks will be available on weekends, and other special activities may be planned, depending on the weather. The best way to keep up with changes or additions to Tulip Days is to follow Exploration Acres on social media or check the website.
And planners are hoping the weather cooperates this year.
A three-year effort at planting sunflower fields proved too costly and unpredictable, Fitzgerald said. While the first year with sunflowers was a success, the second year brought a drought, so the plants didn’t produce many flowers. The third year was so hot and humid people didn’t come out to walk through the fields. Add to that the proliferation of festivals and outdoor events in the area and such ventures become more financially risky.
The tulip fields are very expensive to design and create and the future of the event rests on whether it’s sustainable.
“We may have to rotate the tulips to different fields just like we have to rotate the corn maze,” Fitzgerald says. “We have to be responsible in how we rotate crops and sustain the soil, and we’re always thinking about fertilizer and weed control.”
Best agriculture practices are still required to keep the lavish displays fresh and inviting.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he says. “It’s all an experiment, but we’re trying to create a really special customer experience.” ★
Exploration Acres Tulip Days at a Glance
For the latest news and details about Tulip Days, follow Exploration Acres on Facebook or check out the Exploration Acres website: explorationacres.com/tulips
Location: 6042 Newcastle Rd., Lafayette Planning to open mid-April and continue into early May, weather permitting
Hours of operation: Daily, noon – 7 p.m.
Tickets: Range between $12.95 and $17 for adults, and between $7.95 and $9 for children ages 3-12, depending on whether you buy online or at the gate. Weekend tickets are more expensive. Children two and younger are free. Pet policy: No pets other than trained, identified service dogs
Food: Food trucks available on Saturdays and Sundays
Purchasing tulips: You cut $2 per stem wrapped in paper with adjusted pricing for larger amounts; vases and decorative containers available for sale
