New York City’s temperature is finally hitting the high 70s, so if you haven’t seen the beautiful gem located on 123 West 89th St. between Amsterdam and Columbus, the West Side Community Garden (WSCG) invites you to see its true beauty this spring. WSCG consists of the most beautiful, eye-opening and colorful gardens flourishing around the city. New Yorkers, please gather around to watch thousands of tulips and other spring flowers bloom! WSCG’s Tulip Festival was held from April 12 to April 27. The first new tulip display usually runs from mid-April until the first week of May.
Founded in 1976 on a trash-strewn vacant lot on Columbus Avenue, the garden was built as an urban renewal project. The WSCG is dedicated to providing a gorgeous, peaceful, green environment for everybody to enjoy and find peace in. It is the only privately owned outdoor exhibit founded in New York City. All of the garden’s funds are from grants and donations, and the garden is run entirely by volunteers. Judy Robinson, president of WSCG’s board of directors, told West Side Rag that visitors can view over 100 varieties of tulips. She encourages multiple visits during this time. It is best recommended to go between peak hours on a weekday to see all species of flowers during their peak blooms.. As Robinson mentions, an individual flower’s life span is about a “week to 10 days.” This means that if visitors come early enough into the season to view flowers, they might see a variety of tulips and many other plants. But if they return after a week, the buds may no longer be there, but a new set of flowers will flourish.
WSCG comprises 1.25 acres of land, incorporated as a not-for-profit in 1983 by neighborhood residents, who at first began with nothing but an empty lot. This soon became the West Side Urban Renewal Project as the community group began rebuilding the renewal areas of New York. They attempt to stop empty lots or torn-down buildings from becoming dumpsters and grounds for garbage. The lot, now WSCG, includes a flower garden at one end and individually assigned vegetable plots at the other.
The Tulip Festival was started over 30 years ago by one of the WSCG’s founders, Charles Jones. His mission was to fill the front of the garden with tulip bulbs each spring. This way, the garden’s first visual would be known for its attractive tulip bulbs. The Tulip Festival is brought to life by dedicated garden members and community volunteers who plant 13,000 bulbs every November. “This year we planted 70 different tulip varieties in addition to 10 beds which were planted with tulip mixes,” Robinson told the West Side Rag. Usually, the mixes range from four to seven varieties. The bulb planting weekend is the garden’s strongest single volunteer event of the year, and it involves strenuous individuals willing to plant tulips six to eight inches underground. The bulbs then need 12-16 weeks of cold weather to bloom.
This year, the WSCG has its weekly public food scrap collection from 11 p.m. to noon every Sunday. Here, the garden collects frozen or organic food waste and puts it in its collection point outside the garden gates on 90th Street, between Amsterdam and Columbus. Volunteers are outside waiting to greet all donors. The WSCG accepts vegetable and fruit peelings, coffee grounds and tea bags, egg shells, shredded newspaper and brown paper bags.
Warmer or cooler weather can set everything forward or back, of course. However, the free admission times are still available from peak hour times — 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Small bulbs such as snowdrops, crocosmias and squills usually bloom and fade from the beginning to the middle of March. Then, by the end of March and early April, the famous Species Tulips, hyacinths and daffodils. Over 13,000 tulips are in full bloom and last through early May.
Beyond the tulip festival, the WSCG hosts an opera night, annual benefit, movie night, Fourth of July Festival and many other holiday events that correspond to the city’s community all year round. If you want to come see the Tulip Festival, the hours are from dawn to dusk. After hearing from the garden employees, the peak times are from the end of April to early May, so come on in, smell the flowers and feel the beauty in the spring air before it is too late!
