A famous suburban tulip festival with more than 350,000 new bulbs officially opens to the public for the 2026 spring season Wednesday.
The bright and colorful tulip fields at Richardson Farm, in suburban Spring Grove, will welcome visitors back for the spring season starting at 10 a.m. on Earth Day. The fields, part of Richardson Adventure Farm, feature 350,000 new tulip bulbs planted this year, with last year’s bulbs popping up too, organizers said.
“500,000 bulbs were already in the ground from previous plantings, so we will have over 1 million blooms altogether,” the farm said on its website.
The 500-acre farm this year, with 30 different varieties, will be open for about two to three weeks while the flowers are in bloom.
“It’s one of the most fun things we do,” George Richardson of Richardson Farm told NBC Chicago’s Matt Rodrigues Wednesday. “People will walk through, pick a few, all laid out in the shape of a butterfly.”
The bulbs were planted Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 of 2025, he said. Now, the giant field is overflowing with colorful flowers.
According to the farm, the weather determines the dates of when the tulips bloom, “but we expect they will be in full bloom or nearly full bloom sometime during mid-April through mid-May…2-3 weeks of bloom time,” the site said.
In a Facebook post, the farm said “Reminder, tulip season is incredibly short.”
“Mother Nature runs the show,” it said. “When it gets warm, the tulips bloom fast and fade even faster. We cannot guarantee being open for Mother’s Day.”
Tickets to the festival start at $17, with food trucks, wine tasting and mimosas, along with free games, live music, free parking and a walking trail.
