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Thanksgiving Point volunteers planted an average of 250 bulbs each to help the organization set a new Guinness World Record for Most Flower Bulbs Planted in One Hour on Friday, Oct. 7, 2022.

Ashtyn Asay, Daily Herald

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Flower bulbs sit waiting to be planted as Thanksgiving Point volunteers set a new Guinness World Record for Most Flower Bulbs Planted in One Hour on Friday, Oct. 7, 2022.

Ashtyn Asay, Daily Herald

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Thanksgiving Point volunteers planted an average of 250 bulbs each to help the organization set a new Guinness World Record for Most Flower Bulbs Planted in One Hour on Friday, Oct. 7, 2022.

Ashtyn Asay, Daily Herald

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Thanksgiving Point volunteers planted an average of 250 bulbs each to help the organization set a new Guinness World Record for Most Flower Bulbs Planted in One Hour on Friday, Oct. 7, 2022.

Ashtyn Asay, Daily Herald

5 / 5

Thanksgiving Point volunteers planted an average of 250 bulbs each to help the organization set a new Guinness World Record for Most Flower Bulbs Planted in One Hour on Friday, Oct. 7, 2022.

Ashtyn Asay, Daily Herald

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After a planting frenzy on Friday morning, Thanksgiving Point now holds the official Guinness World Records title for Most Flower Bulbs Planted in One Hour.

Between 10:10 and 11:10 a.m., 120 community volunteers and 40 staff members planted 41,089 bulbs in Thanksgiving Point’s Ashton Gardens, beating the previous record of 15,690 bulbs planted in one hour in Oshima, Japan, in 2020.

“I’ve always loved Thanksgiving Point; they’ve been such a jewel of our community,” said Jeanette Bennett, a Thanksgiving Point volunteer. “I think it will be so cool to come to the gardens next spring and see all these flowers planted by volunteers and know that it was a world record.”

In order to attain the world record, each of the bulbs had to be counted before being placed in the garden, and volunteers had to sign affidavits certifying that they would only plant bulbs in certain areas and that they would plant the bulbs correctly in order to participate in the event.

“The process to put this together has been months in the works,” said Erica Brown, chief marketing officer at Thanksgiving Point. “Our gardeners and horticulture team have been working to do the math on how many bulbs and how many volunteers to accomplish this.”

Michael Empric, a Guinness World Records adjudicator, was flown in to be on-site to monitor the bulb planting.

“For the record attempt today, my primary role was two-fold,” Empric said. “No. 1 to make sure we had an accurate count of the bulbs, No. 2 to make sure everything was done correctly horticulturally. Everything was planted correctly, everything was above board and everything we threw out in the morning made it into the ground.”

Empric presented Thanksgiving Point representatives with a certificate to commemorate the new world record as well as a Guinness World Records plaque.

“Setting a Guinness World Records title is really a big deal because you kind of reach that echelon of people who have not only done something but have documented something,” Empric said. “A lot of time, people do things and don’t really go through the steps to document. In this case, we know exactly how many flower bulbs made it into the ground.”

The bulbs planted Friday will bloom in time to be on display during Thanksgiving Point’s Tulip Festival in late April and May 2023. Thanksgiving Point gardeners and volunteers plant over 500,000 spring bulbs each year in early October to prepare for the Tulip Festival, which hosts over 140,000 people annually.

“Thanksgiving Point is a nonprofit that exists to bring to life the wonders of the natural world,” Brown said. “What this means to us to break this world record is that we’re setting the stage for a 2023 Tulip Festival that is world-class in every way.”

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