The family of Vernin Veldheer, founder of Veldheer's Tulip Garden, is inviting the public to help celebrate his 100th birthday this weekend. Veldheer started his tulip farm in the Michigan City of Holland in 1950. Decades later, his family's business has become a fixture of the community and helped shape the city's tulip industry.
"In a few more days, I'll be a hundred," Veldheer said. "For my age, I'm pretty good."
Veldheer's grandson, Jacob, helps run the gardens, and credits his grandfather's varied career for inspiring generations. "It's always amazing with him being 100 years old, and just everything he has gone through, between working as a plowman with the county, working as a farmer, he was an MP in the military," Jacob said.
"We started out, Vernin and his wife, Esther, after World War II more as a hobby, with 300 reds and 100 whites," Jacob said. "And slowly, the hobby became a business where people wanted to come out and start seeing the farm."
Veldheer recalled, "I was 17 years old, and then I got my first one." Since then, the gardens have drawn visitors from beyond West Michigan.
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