“Wicked”: All About the 9 Million Tulips Planted for Munchkinland and Where They Are Now

Production designer Nathan Crowley shares behind-the-scenes details

Wicked’s Munchkinland set had some serious flower power.

The film’s production designer, Nathan Crowley, had nine million tulips planted to create the look of the magical village in the musical, a prequel to The Wizard of Oz.

Crowley says he and director Jon M. Chu wanted the set to be “wondrous and colorful” and came up with the idea that the munchkins would be tulip farmers.

“And the tulips are the colors of the rainbow, so that all ties in with themes of its history,” Crowley tells PEOPLE, nodding to the famous song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from the original Oz movie.

He and Chu also wanted to use real tulips — not CGI. “Everyone looked at me like I was mad,” he recalls.

Related: Are Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande Singing Live in Wicked? Here's How They Pulled It Off

“I go into these production meetings, I try to convince everyone. I didn't tell them we were growing nine million. I said I want to grow a lot of tulips. I didn't know how many we were growing, but I knew we had to grow enough that they went into their horizon,” says.

According to Variety, Crowley worked with Norfolk, England, tulip farmer Mark Eves to get all the bulbs he needed. And at around four cents per bulb, the tulips were comparable in price to the cost of special effects, according to Crowley.

And once filming was finished, the flowers weren’t wasted. Crowley told Variety that Eves was able to reuse the bulbs.

“Tulip farming is about putting the bulbs in the ground, you grow the flowers and you chop the heads off,” he told the outlet. “The bulbs get bigger, and the next season, you put the bulb in the greenhouse, and that’s where you get your flowers. So he took the bulbs and grew them.”

Related: Wicked Hailed as a 'Masterpiece' in Glowing First Reactions: 'You Will Be Gagged Beyond Belief'

Wicked, an origin story of Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West, stars Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba Thropp, a misunderstood and shy green-skinned young woman who meets the bubbly Glinda (Ariana Grande), the future Good Witch, at Shiz University.

The polar opposites strike up an unlikely friendship before external forces threaten their bond.

The hit movie — which earned $114 million on its opening weekend in North America, the third-highest film debut of the year — is based on the long-running Broadway musical that originally starred Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth.

Part 1 of Wicked, which costars Jeff Goldblum, Bowen Yang, Michelle Yeoh and Jonathan Bailey, covers the events of the musical’s first act. Part 2 debuts in theaters in 2025.

Buy PEOPLE’s Wicked special edition here.