Tulip Picking | Sarah Grey Pick Farm
Me and my tulip basket
A few more tulip farms have opened this year and I decided to check out Sarah Grey Pick Farm at 1415 Balfour St, Pelham, ON L0S 1C0.
This is actually my third year going tulip picking. The prior years I went to TASC and can give my comparison on them.
So what does going tulip picking entail?
First off you buy a ticket! Between all the farms I knew in Ontario, adult weekday tickets averaged around ~$20 a ticket. Weekend tickets are a couple dollars more. Sarah Grey was $20 and TASC after processing fees was $23.88. One of the reasons I chose these farms over others was the flexibility of the weekday tickets. You did not have to go on the exact selected date which is good when accommodating weather changes. Weekend tickets do need to be pre-booked in advance.
You go to the tulip farm! Sarah Grey and TASC are both in the same region of Ontario about 1.5 hour to 2 hour drive from Toronto. Once you get there they have their own parking lot for you to park. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to imagine how to get here without a car.
You enter their farm where you pick up a bucket because with each ticket you get to pick 10 tulips to take home! With the option for you to take home more. At SG it is $1 per extra stem.
Take lots and lots of photos!
Get your tulips wrapped up and now you have a bouquet to put up at home ^_^
I recommend picking your tulips towards the at the end of your visit. If you pick them in the beginning they will start to wilt as you walk through the fields, they might also get damaged from being passed around. You can pick a few to hold for photos then when you’re planning to leave you can pick the full 10 and snap in some photos with the bouquet as well. We brought our own wicket basket for photos :D
What was nice about this visit at SG was there were not many people. Though smaller than TASC, there are still plenty of tulips. It’s hard to go wrong with rows and rows of tulips. They also had an abundance of cute photo opportunities. I really liked their reflective silver spheres. There was also a piano, photo frames, a swing set, and cute vintage chairs placed throughout the field. With it being less busy it feels much calmer and you don’t have to wait to take photos with the different props. You’re less likely to capture people in your shots if that is important to you. The spacing of the tulip rows are larger which does allow for strollers and ease of walking.
TASC in 2022 and SG in 2024
TASC is the largest tulip pick farm in Ontario. And I do feel they have a larger variety of tulips especially with the colours available. There is a lot more rows of tulips, but it is also busier. The one thing I also liked about TASC is how they plant their tulip rows. They’re spaced out in a way that makes it easier to move between rows. This was much more convenient when it comes to taking photos. After sections of small rows they do have larger ones that are more accessible to strollers and those who need more space.
If I were to pick between the two, I prefer TASC a little more. I don’t mind crowds too much and lining up to get my flowers wrapped isn’t a problem for me. There is a difference of only a few dollars in tickets but the size and variety in the tulip fields is greater. I liked having more choice in the colours of flowers to take home. But SG was a nice calm retreat with the tulips which I did enjoy.
I think a big factor to enjoying the tulips is the time in the season you go. Unfortunately tulip season seems to already be ending. Many are at their max bloom and these farms are closing May 12th this year. When you go too late the tulips are fully bloomed and some might already be losing their petals. I also recommend taking home tulips that aren’t quite bloomed yet so they last longer at home. There are less choices when its later in the season.
Though it may be too late this year, I do recommend this activity to try one year. If you like flowers it is an amazing sight to see so many tulips in one place. Being able to pick and choose your own bouquet is also fun. The fields make for really pretty pictures to save as memories and it is also a very good family activity, for kids and older parents as well. These tulip farms also have green space where you can sit and have a picnic and food trucks as well if you want to eat and spend a lot of time there.
Watch our tiktok video!
How to get here
Take the QEW South for a little over an hour
Exit at Victoria Ave and take residential/farm roads for about 20 mins
Parking available on site!
Visited May 8, 2024
