‘You get to pick:’ Spanish Fork family farm debuts U-Pick tulip festival
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- Tulips bloom at the Utah Tulip Festival on Friday, April 10, 2026, in Spanish Fork.
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- Tosh Kartchner and London Boyland pose with their kids at the Utah Tulip Festival on Friday, April 10, 2026, in Spanish Fork.
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- Tulips bloom at the Utah Tulip Festival on Friday, April 10, 2026, in Spanish Fork.
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- Tulips bloom at the Utah Tulip Festival on Friday, April 10, 2026, in Spanish Fork.
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- Tulips bloom at the Utah Tulip Festival on Friday, April 10, 2026, in Spanish Fork.
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- Tulips bloom at the Utah Tulip Festival on Friday, April 10, 2026, in Spanish Fork.
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- Tulips bloom at the Utah Tulip Festival on Friday, April 10, 2026, in Spanish Fork.
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- Tulips bloom at the Utah Tulip Festival on Friday, April 10, 2026, in Spanish Fork.
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- Tulips bloom at the Utah Tulip Festival on Friday, April 10, 2026, in Spanish Fork.
A “leap of faith” was required to buy 250,000 tulip bulbs and bury them in the family farm in Spanish Fork to host a new springtime event, Utah Tulip Festival owner Kara Lewis admitted.
A mild wintertime followed by erratic springtime weather that saw the temperature rise to nearly 90 degrees, then drop to 27.5 degrees added a few sleepless nights.
A week into the festival, though, the risk appears to have paid off. The tulips bloomed and the crowds showed up.
“As you can see, they made it through, and they’re just really beautiful,” Lewis said.
The festival is a first-of-its-kind event in the state, where visitors not only come for the sights and smells, but to purchase flowers to bring home with them. The festival started Monday and runs through May 2, open Monday through Saturday at 1238 W. 6800 South in Spanish Fork.
“I think all of us were told as kids, ‘don’t pick the flowers,’ at grandma’s house or the park or wherever, and we’re inviting people out to come pick the flowers,” Lewis said. “And I think that’s what’s so fun, is we’re telling you, ‘you get to pick.’ You get to walk across this 5-acre field and find the flowers you like.”
Lewis and her family are well-acquainted with the agritourism business, hosting the Glen Rays Corn Maze on some of their land each fall, but have never done a springtime event. Family friends in the Skagit Valley of Washington have operated a tulip festival for years and encouraged them to try it out.
Those friends connected Lewis’ family with distributors in the Netherlands, who helped them identify the varieties and colors of tulips to buy. They purchased 70 types of flowers, each with different peak bloom times to ensure the field has fresh flowers throughout the month.
“That was very helpful, because we were kind of going into this blind, having no idea what to do,” Lewis said.
The Netherlands connection also has some sentimental value for the family. While the family farm goes back generations on Lewis’ dad’s side of the family, Lewis said the tulip festival serves as a way to honor her mom’s side, who they learned has ancestors who emigrated from the Netherlands to Utah.
“Everything we do is kind of rooted in our family history and our heritage, and this has just been another fun connection,” she said.
The family also wants to share that farming legacy with the community. The most satisfying part of the festival for Lewis is seeing customers come by and appreciate the experience at the field.
“I think that tulips just kind of speak to everybody,” she said. “You think of other flowers like roses. Roses kind of mean more romance and things like that, but tulips can mean anything. We’ve had people that have come out just to pick a bouquet for their girlfriend or a friend that’s in the hospital. It really just speaks to everyone.”
Tosh Kartchner and London Boyland, of Salt Lake County, said spring break was the ideal time to come down with their kids to see tulips. They originally planned to go to Thanksgiving Point, but said it was more expensive, and that getting to pick their own was more of a draw.
“We just thought this would be much more fun for us to do,” Boyland said. “And I felt like we were also supporting a local farming family.”
