WINNIPEG - October 16, 2008 – Representatives from the Dutch community of Winnipeg will be assembling on Thursday, October 16, 2008, to help plant some of the 10,000 donated tulips that will bloom next spring in Assiniboine Park’s Leo Mol Sculpture Garden.  Netherlands Vice Consul, Hans Hasenack will bring greetings and present the tulips donation to Assiniboine Park Horticulturist, Ken Beattie. 

Adding to the cultural flare of authentic Dutch costumes will be a 100-year-old Dutch street organ playing classical European melodies.

Plan to join us as we prepare for next spring’s First Annual Tulip Festival. Meet us in the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden at 1:30 p.m., Thursday, October 16, 2008. Assiniboine Park staff and members of the Dutch Canadian Society will be on hand to celebrate and plant the first tulip bulbs. The first installation of tulips will be situated adjacent to the Leo Mol sculpture, “De Zaaier” (the Sower) donated by Winnipeg’s Dutch community in 1993 to commemorate 100 years of Dutch settlement in Canada.