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Immersive Tulip Installations Go Viral at the UK’s Largest Tulip Festival

For its second season, Tulleys Tulip Fest invited IGMPR to create new immersive experiences to support the festival’s continued growth and expansion to two additional locations. In response, IGMPR designed a modular series of installations that could be easily assembled across various types of terrain and settings.

IGMPR also supported the sourcing, planting, and planning the implementation of tens of thousands of potted tulips and hyacinths, which were expertly forced into bloom to coincide precisely with the festival dates. The combination of tulips and hyacinths—plants that do not typically flower simultaneously—added extra layers of fragrance, texture, and color to the overall visitor experience.

In addition to the spectacular tulip fields, guests enjoyed dozens of unique photo opportunities designed to provide the perfect, shareable souvenir. The Immersive Blooming Objects (I.B.O.s) once again proved to be a viral success on social media, offering a creative way to photograph oneself surrounded by tulips—without the need to crouch or kneel in the flower beds.

The outdoor exhibition The Journey of the Tulip further enriched the experience, offering not only visually striking displays but also deeper insights into the tulip’s fascinating natural and cultural history.

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Exhibition, Flower Festival, Tulip Festival, Uncategorized /

Immersion Garden 2025 edition

The Immersion Garden at the Tulip Time Festival in Holland, MI, entered its fourth season this year. Since its debut in 2022, the garden has been specifically designed to offer visitors the perfect photo opportunity through our unique Immersive Blooming Objects (I.B.O.s), while also telling the rich story of the tulip.

Featuring ‘only’ 65,000 tulips and hyacinths—carefully forced into bloom—the garden is conceived as a giant floral arrangement that invites guests to get up close and personal with the flowers. The raised installations create stunning visual settings where visitors appear to be completely surrounded by tulips, all within a compact footprint. This efficient design allows us to craft dozens of distinct scenes and compositions throughout the garden. The Immersion garden is an attraction for all ages and demographics, and generates free publicity on both social and mainstream media.

Set on just 1 acre (4,000 m²), including paths and interpretation panels, the Immersion Garden can accommodate up to 400 visitors at any given time, providing an engaging and photogenic experience for all.

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Exhibition, Tulip Festival /

New Outdoor Exhibitions of ‘The Journey of the Tulip’

When people encounter tulips in full bloom, they are often captivated by the flower’s incredible variety of colors and shapes. This fascination naturally sparks curiosity—not only about tulip cultivation, but also about the flower’s rich cultural and historical background. What better way to satisfy this interest than through an outdoor exhibition at your garden or festival, offering both information and inspiration?

Drawing on years of interdisciplinary research—conducted in collaboration with art historians, botanical experts, archaeologists, and museums—IGMPR has developed an engaging outdoor exhibition that brings the story of the tulip to life. Designed for tulip festivals and public gardens, this exhibition offers visitors an attractive and authoritative journey through the natural and cultural history of the tulip, tracing its path from East to West.

The exhibition features 24 beautifully designed outdoor panels with over 100 visuals, including rare artworks, illustrations, and photography. These are presented across four main themes:

1. What Makes a Flower a Tulip
Discover the anatomy, life cycle, and reproduction of the tulip, along with an introduction to today’s diverse cultivar groups.

2. Ancient Origins
Explore the natural history of wild tulip species in Central Asia and their earliest appearances in art and culture, dating back to 2000 BC.

3. The Rise of Tulip Culture
Learn how the Turks elevated tulip cultivation into a cultural phenomenon and how the flower made its way further into Europe.

4. Arrival in the Netherlands
See how the tulip, within just a few decades of arriving in the Netherlands, sparked “Tulip Mania,” influenced new art forms like still lifes and Delftware, and laid the foundation for today’s Dutch horticulture industry.

The exhibition can be tailored with additional panels to share the unique story of your own garden or festival.

The first version was launched at the Immersion Garden during the Tulip Festival in Holland, Michigan. An updated edition premiered this spring at tulip festivals in both the United Kingdom (Tulleys Tulip Fest) and Italy (Parco Sigurtà).

This cost-effective installation adds 15–30 minutes of meaningful engagement to the visitor experience. It also serves as a popular photo backdrop and an educational feature for school trips and guided tours – helping attract new and diverse audiences.Feel free to contact us about licensing and customization options.

Exhibition, Tulip Festival /

New art exhibition launch ‘The Journey of the Tulip’

This spring, visitors to the renowned Tulip Festival in Beijing’s famous Zhongshan Park – located next to the Forbidden City – will be invited to immerse themselves in the rich natural and cultural history of the tulip, a flower from the ancient Silk Road.

IGMPR was commissioned to design and curate this vibrant exhibition in the classical Qi Jian Fang Pavilion (80 m²). Drawing on years of interdisciplinary research in collaboration with art historians, botanical experts, archaeologists, and museums from around the world, curator Ibo Gülsen presents compelling new evidence of humanity’s admiration for the tulip, dating back as far as 2000 BC.

With over 100 carefully selected and newly created visuals and illustrations, this colorful exhibition explores the following themes:

  1. What Makes a Flower a Tulip: Discover the anatomy, growth cycle, and reproduction of tulips, as well as the modern cultivar groups.
  2. Natural History: Learn about the wild tulip species and their origins in the mountainous regions of Central Asia.
  3. Cultural History: Explore how the tulip has inspired art and craftsmanship across Central Asia, Türkiye, and the Netherlands – including ceramics.
  4. The World of Tulips: Enjoy a photographic journey through tulip gardens and festivals worldwide, showcasing the universal love for this iconic flower.

In addition, the exhibition features two immersive art installations:

  • The Istanbul Tulip Re-imagined
    In collaboration with local silk flower and glass artists, IGMPR brought the (almost)extinct “Istanbul Tulip”—once favored by the Ottoman sultans—back to life. These reconstructions are based on centuries-old botanical illustrations and artefacts.
  • Tulipmania!
    Experience the grandeur of tulips in 17th-century still life. We created XL reproductions of the stunning still life paintings by Roman and Henriëtte Resinger, featuring tulips displayed in Delftware flower towers—ceramic masterpieces inspired by Asian pagodas and originally used to showcase prized tulips.

The exhibition’s opening was attended by representatives from the Beijing Parks and Culture Departments, as well as officials from the Dutch and Turkish embassies. This exhibition can be tailored to different venues, languages, and educational formats. Please contact us to explore how it can enhance the visitor experience at your garden, museum, or festival.

The exhibition is very good and the exhibition is carefully arranged. I learned about the history of tulips and broadened my horizons. Thank you Zhongshan Park for creating such a good experience opportunity for tourists. – comment by visitor

Conferences, Media /

World Tulip Summit 2024

IGMPR organized the 9th edition of the World Tulip Summit from October 16-18 in The Hague. Since its inception in 2002, The World Tulip Summit is the premier conference and professional exchange platform for tulip attractions from around the world.

Over 60 delegates from 20 tulip attractions and organizations participated in a varied conference program about horticulture, marketing and PR, visitor experience, souvenirs and art & history. Site visits to the world famous Keukenhof and the Tulip Experience Amsterdam provided practical insights how to create a best in-class tulip attraction.

Watch this item on ABC Wood TV for an impression:

Please visit www.worldtulipsummit.com for more information on the program.

Flower Festival, Horticulture, Media, Projects /

Bloom with a View 2024 edition

Back by popular demand, our immersive flower show Bloom with a View, was launched for a second season at the North Carolina Arboretum. This year’s edition included not only thousands of hydrangeas, lilies and calla’s but also dahlia’s, canna’s and other summer flowering plants. Furthermore we created the exhibition ‘Picture your self’ throughout the garden.

Watch more at ABC 13:

Flower Bulbs, Flower Festival /

Dafeng Holland Flowers Tulip Season 2024

Millions of tulips bloom in China’s largest flower park. Besides the tulips, IGMPR arranged the cultural programming with different artists from the Netherlands: the iconic band Kleintje Pils, street performers Close Act and an exhibition of famous landscape photographer Albert Dros. We also had the pleasure to host ambassador André Haspels and his wife during their visit to Dafeng and Yancheng to learn more about its shared history and future in water engineering, nature conservation and floriculture. IGMPR has been supporting the development, operation and promotion of the Dafeng Holland Flower park since 2015. Watch the video below for an introduction of the park!

Dafeng Holland Flower Park Introduction Video:

Conferences, Garden Tourism /

International Garden Tourism Conference

From November 1-4, IGMPR co-organized the International Garden Tourism Conference in cooperation with the Canadian Garden Council and support of – amongst others – the American Public Gardens Association and City of Victoria. Over 90 delegates from 40 gardens and 12 countries gathered in Victoria, BC to Seize the Moment. These gardens alone host already more than 17 million visitors a year and truly are a destination category on its own. We look forward to next conference in 2025.

Media /

When Holland meets The Netherlands

Last October we had the pleasure to host a delegation and TV crew from Holland, Michigan. The city is famous for its Dutch heritage and of course the world’s oldest Tulip Festival, Tulip Time! We showed them the contemporary life of our family in the Netherlands, from school to sports, from shopping groceries to home cooking. Of course we had to dive into tulip history at the Hortus Botanicus and plant bulbs in the Keukenhof! We also made a courtesy visit to Prime Minister Mark Rutte, the Hague Mayor Jan van Zanen and U.S. Ambassador Shefali Razdan Duggal . The visit will be aired in different segments on ‘Where you live’ by Maranda (Wood TV, ABC West Michigan).