Belleville Mayor Taso Christopher with president Rose Doran of the Belleville Garden Club, May 17, 2016. (Photo: Mary Thomas/Quinte News)
The Belleville Garden Club and Mayor Taso Christopher marked the first blooming of Belleville’s own Dutch Friendship Tulip Garden in a brief ceremony Tuesday afternoon.
The city has its own Dutch Friendship Tulip Garden marking the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of The Netherlands.
During the Second World War Canada provided shelter for the Royal Dutch family.
In fact, a member of the family, Prince Margaret, was born in Ottawa during the war.
Since that time, the Dutch royal family has annually donated tulips to Ottawa as a symbol of the role Canadian soldiers played in the liberation of the Netherlands.
In recognition of the 70th anniversary the Canadian Garden Council donated an additional 700 tulip bulbs each to cities across Canada.
The tulips are blooming for the first time in Memorial Gardens at the corner of Bell Boulevard and North Park Street.
Member of the Belleville Garden Club Yolande Fellowes, formerly of Holland, at the Dutch Friendship Tulip Garden, May 17, 2016. (Photo: Mary Thomas/Quinte News)
Member of the Belleville Garden Club, Yolande Fellowes, who immigrated to Canada after the war at the age of seven, says the tulips are “an ongoing sign of Holland’s gratitude to Canada.”
President of the Belleville Garden Club Rose Doran says she’s pleased with the garden of tulips which were planted last November and feels it is a good tribute to Canada’s military, particularly since it is so close to CFB Trenton.
