ADMIRE POLEMI TULIP DURING ANNUAL FESTIVAL SUNDAY

Cyprus Mail - 28 March 2019 - article by Bejay Browne

Hundreds of visitors are expected to descend on Polemi village in the Paphos district on Sunday to admire thousands of wild tulips in full bloom at the annual tulip festival.

The event will get underway at 11:30am and celebrates the wonder of the not-so-humble tulip Tulipa Agenensis, which is found all over the southern Mediterranean and other areas such as Israel.

However, the plateau between Stroumbi and Polemi is the only area on the island where the tulips grow en masse.

Two other species of tulip are known in Cyprus, one of them found in Tymbou and the other (a sub-species of the first one) found in the Akamas region, but these are only found in tiny numbers.

There will be free wine and traditional Cypriot sweets (loukoumades), a cultural programme and tulip-design face painting for the children, followed by the main event when everyone will walk together from the village square to the nearby plateau to admire the tulips.

Dr Antonis Nicandrou of the Friends of the Polemi Tulip, who is hugely knowledgeable about the blooms and their history on the island, will be on hand to answer any questions.

During the 1960s and 1970s the plateau was full of wild tulips – and has somehow survived being obliterated, despite the “irrational” land use of recent decades and the regular use of pesticides, Dr Nicandrou said.

His wife Constance, also a tulip-lover, will auction off a limited-edition framed print called Polemi Tulips in the Field, all of the money raised being donated to the Friends of the Polemi Tulip for the preservation of the flowers. There is a reserve price of €150 to get the bidding underway.

Polemi Tulip Festival
Annual festival. March 31, 11.30am. Polemi Youth Square, in the centre of the village. The village is off the main Paphos to Polis road (B7). Polemi community council: 26 632736.