Pick Your Own Tulips On Park Avenue Starting Monday: What To Know

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Did you admire the tulips that brightened Park Avenue's medians this spring, perhaps with a hint of envy? Good news: those colorful flowers can be yours, for free, if you stop by to dig them up next week.

The annual Park Avenue Tulip Dig will run from May 23-29, according to the nonprofit Fund for Park Avenue, which plants the roughly 60,000 tulips in a new color each year.

By the end of May, once the tulips' petals begin to fall, members of the public are allowed to dig up any bulbs they find along Park Avenue's mid-mall planters between the north side of 54th Street and the south side of 86th Street.

Separately, Park Avenue tulips between East 86th and 96th streets are also available to be dug up between now and Memorial Day, according to Joanna Cawley, executive director of Carnegie Hill Neighbors, which plants the uptown flowers.

This year's flowers between 54th and 86th streets are a distinctive pink tulip known as Darwin Hybrid Apricot Pride, a weather-resistant variety that will blossom brightly again "year after year" if they are replanted in a suitable space, the Fund says.

"When digging up the bulbs, do not take any soil and do not cut off the leaves," the group wrote in a flier for this year's dig, adding that bulbs should be stored in a dry place until their leaves turn brittle.

By October or November, they can be replanted with a small amount of fertilizer, ideally in a spot that gets lots of sunlight.

If you decide to dig for tulips between Monday and the following Sunday, bring your own trowel — and print out a copy of the event flier, the Fund advises, presumably to ward off any suspicious glances from cops or passersby.