BELGRADE – Each spring, drivers stop along the side of state Route 27, whip out their cameras and snap pictures of 30,000 yellow and purple, red, orange and white tulips in bloom.

It’s hard to imagine, but this is only the beginning of William and Diane Martin’s plans for their yard. By planting 70,000 more bulbs, they figure, they’ll eventually be able to start a tulip festival in Belgrade.

Their dream started four years ago, when the couple attended a tulip festival in Holland, Mich. Every year for more than half a century, that town’s residents have celebrated their Dutch ancestry and customs in a festival that now features 6 million tulips.

The Martins decided to bring a slice of Holland to Maine. They started planting tulips around their house, which is built in the shape of a windmill.

Soon they hope to add a cap and lattice sails so the windmill can actually generate electricity.

Diane Martin, a 45-year-old lab technician at MaineGeneral Medical Center, has the job of mapping out the tulip beds.

She sketches her designs on paper, rearranging the beds each year. Bulbs are planted in the fall, 6 inches deep, she said.

“This is the third year we’ve had tulips,” she said. “You can’t just throw the bulbs in the ground. I try to figure out what colors go good together. I take a lot of pictures so I can get the perfect look.”

The most unusual addition to their collection of bulbs this year is the Tulip Bouquet, which delicately balances three flowers on one stem.

Diane said she couldn’t count the hours she and her husband have spent bent over their flower gardens, planting bulbs and weeding and watering the beds. It’s a labor of love they hope to share.

“We’ve seen professional photographs of our tulips at the Waterville Art Show and some of the local gift shops,” Diane Martin said. “They’re there for people to stop and enjoy.”