A tulip shortage because of the prolonged winter weather is affecting the last flower festival in the Lincolnshire town of Spalding. The organisers of the Spalding Flower Parade are expected to bring in the tulips from France as there is such a lack of option in the UK market.
Growers, who prepare the flowers for the parade, state the current cold weather is the worst growing conditions for tulips in living memory.
The Spalding Flower parade has been running since 1959 and in its heyday attracted over 100,000 spectators. It is being cancelled after two of the councils who contribute to the budget of the parade decided to end its contributions.
Kathleen Codd, who is the flower parade manager, stated that the likelihood of tulips from the UK being used in the show as very low. She also mentioned that the tulips will be exported from France or another country on the continent. She said that if tulips could not been found in time then a wide variety of other materials would be used for the floats being created for the parade.
A single float in the parade about 50ft in length can be decorated with as many as 100,000 tulip heads.
The flower parade will take place on the 4th May and it is the last one to take place as councillors say the falling attendances does not justify the cost of planning and executing the parade each year.