Some of the tulip beds beside Dows Lake showing the wide diversity of tulip colour and type.
The tulip festival is held in May, culminating on the Sunday of the May long weekend with a flotilla of brightly decorated boats travelling down the Rideau Canal from Dows Lake to the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.
The Canadian Tulip Festival is the largest tulip festival in the world. It had its beginnings in the fall of 1945 when Princess Juliana of the Netherlands presented Ottawa with 100,000 tulip bulbs. The gift was given in appreciation of the safe haven in Canada which Holland's exiled royal family received during the Second World War and in recignition of the role which Canadian troops played in liberating the Netherlands. In 1953 the first official Canadian Tulip Festival was held.
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