Orange City has plenty of tulips for its festival

The state’s “other” tulip festival opens this morning in the northwestern Iowa town of Orange City. While the fest in Pella last week was somewhat marred as many tulips bloomed early and had already wilted, Orange City is 120 miles north and everything’s coming up..tulips.Karen Richter, promotions director for the Orange City Chamber of Commerce, says they were lucky this year to have good weather, after holding a “stem festival” last year. She says there are many things to do at the tulip festival besides stopping to smell the flowers. There are parades each of the three days at 2:15 in the afternoon and at 6:30 in the evening.Richter says it’s a friendly rivalry with Pella’s Tulip Time. Both festivals have been Iowa staples for more than 60 years. She says Orange City is a smaller community and their festival has less walking than at Pella.The Orange City festival concludes on Saturday.