VEVAY, Ind. — For the third year, Kat Von D and Vevay, Indiana native Lisa Fisher have worked together to create a unique spring attraction.
Along with the community's help, they planted 15,000 black tulips just outside Von D's home in Vevay. The tulips are peaking now, so this could be your last weekend to see them.
Von D said she purchased her home from Fisher, who still owns the adjacent field where the tulips are planted.
"So when I approached her about doing something with this empty lot here, I was like 'hey, what do you think about planting a bunch of tulips?'" said Von D. "And she goes 'that's cool.' I'm like, 'do you mind if they're black?' And she was like that's, that's cool.'"
Watch to get a look at the tulip field and the crowds it's bringing to the small town:
The well-known tattoo artist, musician and entrepreneur wanted a creative way to get people to Vevay and share the small town she has fallen in love with. Fisher said it's working, after seeing the tulip tourists at downtown shops and restaurants.
Von D has talked with people who have come in from across the country to see the tulips, including someone who drove up from Texas last weekend.
They started with 10,000 black tulips the first year, which grew to 15,000 this year — and they hope to double that next year. Tulips typically only bloom for about two weeks in the spring. To get them to all bloom together, they try to plant them all within 48 hours.
"I've actually learned how to till because of Lisa," Von D said. "I was like, we need to figure out how to do this ourselves."
Von D chose the unique black tulips, joking her family is the real-life Addams Family.
"I think there's something beautiful in the darkness," Von D said. "I think there's plenty of people that have rainbow colored tulip fields, but the only place you're going to find one that's black is going to be here, so it's so unique, which I think makes it that much cooler."
She teamed up with a company to buy the bulbs, which are the Queen of the Night variety. The tulips get darker as they bloom.
For her family's privacy and safety, Von D asks visitors to not come onto her property or up to her house. Since this is in the middle of a neighborhood, she also asked everyone to continue to be respectful of her neighbors, and refrain from picking any of the tulips so that others can enjoy the full display.
