Bring Your Own Shovel (BYOS)
The annual Park Avenue "tulip dig" is as popular as a Supreme drop.
Every spring for the last 45 years, the Fund for Park Avenue has filled the planter beds from 54th Street to 86th Street with thousands of colorful tulips, providing New Yorkers with a short but powerful burst of happiness after a long, dark winter. “Officially the best week of the year in NYC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” said Upper East Side resident Becky Malinsky in a post on Instagram at the end of April, when flowers started blooming.
The scene is stunning enough to make you (almost) forget how high the rents are, how busted the subway is, and the fact that we have an ex-governor accused of sexual harassment campaigning to replace our current, criminally charged mayor. But what do New Yorkers do when the tulips inevitably die? I’d argue that what happens next is just as heartwarming…
In February, while breakfasting at Café Zaffri with publicist Hilary McCanse, she told me about the Park Avenue Fund’s annual Tulip Dig, which takes place at the end of the season each May. Everyone is invited to dig up the bulbs and take them home for free since the Fund replants new colors every year, anyway. (A testament to its incredible budget, which is reportedly about $1 million.) All you have to do is bring your own shovel (BYOS) and be willing to wake up very early.
According to the Fund’s current leadership, the inaugural dig took place over 15-something years ago. Pre-COVID, they’d block off about a week for it, designate ten beds to the public, and clean up the rest themselves to make way for the summer begonias. But during the pandemic, they saw a massive surge in interest reminiscent of the 17th-century “tulip mania,” as New Yorkers got more into home gardening and pined for the outdoors.
Last year, some 60,000 bulbs were dug up in a single day, and people drove in from as far as Maine. One eager digger even asked if they could arrive at 12:01 a.m. for the first pick in the dark. (This is discouraged; sunrise is preferable.)
Inquiries about this year’s dig date started coming in as early as February, but everyone would have to be patient; the Fund reveals the timing only a few weeks beforehand on Instagram after consulting with landscapers, like a Supreme drop for tulip-heads.
On Saturday morning, when the dig officially started, I ventured from Brooklyn to Park Avenue and 59th Street to check out the scene with my public space-loving friend, Matt Choi. By 9 a.m., some beds had already been decimated, but there were still plenty of buds left for the taking. The Fund’s Executive Director, Amy Sheldon, said that when she walked by earlier that day, around 6:45 a.m., she saw diggers who’d clearly been hard at work for some time. Later, one passerby furiously and erroneously accused them on Instagram of being “tulip thieves!”
In fact, they were just New Yorkers with outdoor space. Sarah, who came with her dad last year, was one of the first diggers I met. She planned to plant the buds in her yard and give some away to her neighbors in South Brooklyn. “It’s therapeutic doing this,” she said, as traffic whizzed by her. “It’s a no-brainer job.”
The process is actually not as easy as you might think, though. Once you dig up the tulips, which you have to do carefully, so as not to damage the bulb or break the stems, you then have to lay them out to dry for a few weeks while the nutrients from the dead leaves flow back into the bulbs. Sarah also heard that you should measure each bulb to ensure they’re at least 10 centimeters in circumference, but her mom said, “Forget that rule,” and successfully planted them in October/November last year, anyway.
“I’m overwhelmed,” said a woman named Jocelyn, who arrived around the same time I did. She wanted to plant the bulbs in her Fort Greene yard and hoped that some friends would show up to help her dig, but they all bailed, despite the beautiful weather. “I think it’s cool that the Fund does this, but I wonder how much money they’re saving by letting the public come,” she said, wiping her forehead. “It’s not really charitable; they’re getting free labor.” She spent about $500 shipping bulbs from Holland last year, though, so at least she’s saving some money, too.
For some, the dig is just an excuse to be outside with friends and family. Barbara McLaughlin, the Fund’s President Emerita, said one woman sent her photos of her digging pregnant in 2023, with a baby in 2024, and with a toddler in 2025. “People really do love this tradition,” she said.
Plus, the payoff is worth it. “Our Easter was full of bulbs,” said Casey, a Long Island resident who came with her mother. Last year, the Fund planted red bulbs along the Avenue, but this year, for its 45th anniversary, each bed was a different color—an ode to the famous tulip fields in the Netherlands. So, Casey had no idea what colors would sprout in her yard next spring.
A woman named Christie, who dug tulips for her boyfriend’s house in Bayside, Queens (he was on a cruise), suspected that some beds were more popular this year because of the color differentiation. But she (and her boyfriend) would be happy with any of them. “He just loves them so much, I was like, Okay, I’ve got to do it for him,” she said. She told herself she would dig only a dozen tulips. “Now, I don’t even know how I’m going to carry all these bags back home with me on the train...”
Through the Park Avenue Malls Planting Project, the Fund provides spring tulips, summer begonias, and fall chrysanthemums, along with all necessary maintenance and tree care. To learn more, visit www.fundforparkavenue.org.
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I love this so much!
The coolest 🌷