Three Million Tulips Open the Season at Niagara's Tulip Pick Farm

A short drive from the Falls, a flower farm goes technicolor this month. The Niagara Tulip Festival opens April 24 at TASC Tulip Pick Farm in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario — 55 acres, more than 3 million tulips, and a pick-your-own format that lets visitors walk the rows, cut ten bright stems to take home, and wander back past food vendors and live bands to a parking lot that smells like spring the way movies promise it will.

The festival runs through May 15, with cooler mornings producing the best light for photos. Weekend crowds are heavy; weekday mornings belong to the photographers and families dragging kids through rows of blossoms the kids will remember for the rest of their lives. Every ticket includes the ten-stem pick and entry; extras are sold on-site.

If you're going: pair a morning at the farm with an afternoon at Queen Victoria Park on the Canadian side — it's the best free Falls viewpoint in the region. Bring rubber boots if the week has been rainy; the rows get muddy fast.

Sources: Niagara Falls Tourism, Visit Niagara Canada