In Englewood, Thousands Of Tulips Are Blooming — During The Winter

● Features & Neighborhood Reporting

By Maia McDonald ✦ Jan. 30, 2023 | Block Club Chicago

Tulips are typically grown in the spring and summer. Southside Blooms' new growing system will produce 18,000 in time for Valentine's Day. Here's how you can order a bouquet.

ENGLEWOOD — There’s an unusual sight popping up on the South Side: Tulips are blooming — in the middle of a Chicago winter.

Southside Blooms, the flower shop of Englewood-based nonprofit Chicago Eco House, 6250 S. Morgan St., is growing 18,000 tulips indoors for a good cause. The program — which has been featured on TV — is known for creating jobs for at-risk youth and converting vacant lots into community assets.

Tulips typically pop up in the spring, but Southside Blooms’ staff members are growing varieties in batches at the Eco House, then harvesting them for local youth to sell through Southside Blooms, said farm manager Travis Wilkinson.

Wilkinson said the project is “super exciting.” He expects the tulips to be a popular pick for people who want to skip roses for Valentine’s Day. People can buy delivered bouquets and gifts here, including a Valentine’s Day bundle for $75.

“This is completely new,” Wilkinson said. “We had our first winter bouquet that we made from these flowers, the harvest that I’ve been doing. … This is the first time we’ve ever had flowers in the winter, in January.”

Wilkinson and other Southside Blooms staff did research to develop their method of growing tulips in the winter, Wilkinson said. Before managing Southside Blooms’ tulip growing effort, Wilkinson worked as a farmer in Idaho, he said. His strong interest in agriculture led Wilkinson to move to Chicago to join Southside Blooms in early 2022, he said.

“This role is … not only flowers. It’s definitely community-based and learning how to create something that builds the community, gives back to the community, empowers the community, and also empowers the land and empowers just the area at large,” Wilkinson said.

Groups of tulip bulbs are planted in dirt-filled crates and placed in a dark, temperature-controlled room in the basement of Chicago Eco House. The room stays between 40 and 50 degrees, and bulbs are continuously watered to help the roots grow, Wilkinson said. 

Once the bulbs have grown roots, they’re switched to a grow room with red and blue UV lights that give off heat and simulate the conditions tulips would naturally experience to finish the rest of the growing process, Wilkinson said.

The lights, which appear fuschia to the human eye, are better suited for the tulips than typical, white grow lights because plants more readily absorb red and blue than other colors, making them grow faster, Wilkinson said. The compost produced at Chicago Eco House from the chickens raised there also helps the flowers grow, Wilkinson said.