The weekend of May 18, 19 and 20, 2017, will be filled with flowers during the 77th annual Tulip Festival in Orange City, Iowa.

There are the usual parades, Dutch dances and horse-drawn trolley tours, but the festival revolves around the tulips. Thousands of early, mid- and late-blooming tulips are planted each year in Orange City in an effort to have tulips in bloom during the festival.

Best places for Road Trips Gardeners to view flowers? In the city center, especially along Central and Albany avenues. The Flower Show, located in the Dutch Heritage Center, features 1,000 tulips in one-of-a-kind arrangements.

Note: the dresses pictured are this year’s apparel for festival royalty. The costume, dating from about 1850, is from the village of Hoorn in the west Friesland region of North Holland.

(Photo courtesy of Orange City Tulip Festival)