Different colored tulips are available at the Plantation Pines Christmas farm, located at 10098 County Rd 429 in Tyler.

Cathy Reynolds, Megan Hart and 6-year-old Gracie decided to make a family trip during spring break to visit Plantation Pine Christmas Tree Farm’s newest tulip farm addition this past week.

Together, the family enjoyed the windy spring weather, picked tulips and posed for photos with each other.

Hart found the Plantation Pine Christmas tree farm’s tulip addition on Facebook. She said they pulled the tulips from the bulb so they could go back home and plant them.

“It’s our first time (coming to a tulip farm). We saw that in April, there’s going to be strawberries and in June there will be blueberries, so we’re definitely going to come back and do these different events,” she said.

“We just think it’s really fun and exciting. It’s not too expensive and just really fun and outdoors. (The tulips) are something we can keep to remember our fun experience,” Hart said.

Hart said the trip to the tulip farm made for a fun family memory.

The Plantation Pines farm is a third generation farm, which has been passed down to its current owner, Heather Reed, who thought of the idea of starting a tulip farm in October last year, when they ordered the tulip bulbs.

The bulbs were refrigerated at 35 to 40 degrees to be tricked into their dormant state to produce spring bulbs. By the end of December, they were planted onto the farm.

To prepare for the tulips, Reed and her family did a lot of internet searches and read multiple articles to gain knowledge on tulips, but most of the learning came from the experience of planting them for the first time.

“I just love the ideas of tulips. Tulips are one of my favorite flowers. We’re real busy in the winter time, but the springtime is just kind of more of a quiet time around here and I just love the idea of a big, full field of color and colorful tulips, so we went for it,” Reed said.

The tulips were affected by the recent snow storm a few weeks ago, so Reed and her family had to cover the tulips, and according to her, say a lot of prayers, and tried to make the best of the situation. The tulips were able to survive the temperatures.

Reed and her husband are the ones primarily responsible for the tulip farm, but when the snow storm hit, they needed help from their families to sustain the tulips.

Now that the Reed family has experience with tulips under their belt, they will be doing things differently next year. They plan on widening the aisles so they can plant more tulips.

“We just have single, straight line rows. We just wanted to first just see how it went. Now we know that we can fit more in here, that people want to come out and we can just go from there,” Reed said.

Tulips are $2.50 each. When customers arrive at the farm, a basket is available, where they can gather their tulips and carry to the checkout desk, where upon payment, the tulips are wrapped tied with a ribbon.

The tulip farm, located at 10090 County Road 429 in Tyler, is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and according to Reed, the tulip farm is being monitored closely to ensure customers aren’t underwhelmed when they arrive.

The last day the tulip farm will be open is unknown.

“It’s kind of a back and forth right now. Being our first year, we really don’t know what to expect with the timeline of the tulips and also not knowing what to expect as far as how many people are expected to be here. We’re just taking it as a day by day thing right now,” Reed said.

The tulip farm is expected to reopen next year, the timing is yet to be determined but it will be around spring break, Reed said.

“It’s a fun experience for everyone and even my little 19-month-old loves being out here in the tulip fields,” Reed said.

Reed said there has been a positive response from the community.

“We have been so blessed with the people out in the community that have wanted to come out and support us and want to come to the tulip field and support local people,” Reed said. “We have been very thankful for that. We didn’t know what to expect planting them, if people would want to come, but they have turned out and we’ve been very blessed by that and very thankful for their support.”

The farm can be on Facebook at Plantation Pines Christmas Tree Farm and the website is plantationpinesfarms.com. Their phone number is (903) 253-3143.