The Wow Factor: Tulips at the Exhibition Grounds

Sometimes a flower display has so much wow factor you just have to stop and take a picture. 

Mass tulip planting on the CNE grounds

That was exactly the case when I came upon these tulips near the eastern entrance to Toronto's Exhibition Place grounds. This particular grouping caught my attention from across the very busy lanes of Lake Shore Boulevard West at Strachan (for non-Torontonians, we pronounce it "strawn" 😀.) It just goes to show the dramatic visual effect a mass planting can have. Plus, if one or two flowers fall victim to a ravenous squirrel, as they inevitably do, there are plenty of flowers still left to enjoy.

The colour of strawberries and 
strawberry ice cream

The shades of pink and light red mixed beautifully to remind me of strawberry ice cream, but there was one outlier.  Can you see it?

The Princes' Gates in Toronto

The tulips are located just outside the Princes' Gates, the gateway to the annual Canadian National Exhibition (CNE), a beloved end-of-summer fair dating back to 1879. This morning, Torontonians learned that there will be no CNE for the second year in a row due to the coronavirus pandemic. So, perhaps it was a bit of good luck that brought me down to these gates on my bike—who knows when I will be here again. I'll never get tired of this archway or of the CNE. For a little while longer, I will have to coast on memories of summers that wrapped up here with midway rides and Tiny Tom donuts. Until I can return, there are tulips to be enjoyed.

One of these things is not like the others

Happy Gardening!