So the Sunday of a long weekend in The Netherlands was spent enjoying the beautiful flowers. Well Tulips actually, in the main.
Tourism is back on track in The Netherlands, but there are still some keen prices to be found; " The Tulip Experience", 71 euros, luxury coach travel, all entrance fees, and a countryside canal "cruise"; well, it had to be done, a cheap day out in all honesty.
After a reasonable 8:5am start from Amsterdam a drive into the countryside to Voorhout, where the 3rd generation run family business of De Tulperij was the first stop.
Acres upon acres of tulips in bloom, grown to die, Daan Jansze, our guide and owner of the farm explained to the group that this is a bulb farm, not a flower farm.
The Tulip was actually originally a wild flower from Turkey.
The name 'tulip' came from the Turkish word for turban.
It is supposed that the Tulip arrived in Western Europe in the late 16th century.
Carolus Clusius, a Viennese biologist, and director at Hortus Botanicus in Leiden, Europe's oldest botanical garden was sent a gift of tulip bulbs from The Dutch ambassador in Turkey.
....and the rest, as they say is history.
Once withered and dead, like these Daffs, the plants are scalped and the bulbs harvested. The majority sold worldwide, the remainder, re-planted in the autumn to continue the cycle.
To get to the small show garden was like being in an airport where you are forced to pass through the duty free zone, I hate that, dont't you? Big corporations not enticing you to buy but route marching you through an area I certainly don't want to be.
6:00am I don't need some young girl on minimum wage, slapped up as though she were on a night out wafting a piece of paper soaked in "eau de unshaven armpit" under my nose, smiling suggestively at me in an attempt to get me to part with my dosh. Wrong tree barking up love.
Real men don't wear perfume.
This however was a joy to stroll through, bulbs, quirky items on sale and on display
It even had its own @pinmapple map!! With visitors from far and wide, Greenland to New Zealand, China to Chile.
Family photos through the generations
I enjoy imbibing vodka, but hmmmm! I think whoever dreamt this up must have put the recipe together whilst chilling in an Amsterdam coffee shop
The tiny show garden, is a real time real life product catalogue of some of the farm's finest tulips, in full bloom, orders are taken and can be shipped worldwide
All sizes from dwarf ground hugging strains to tall examples that really need wind protection.
Most gardens are not of a size to have a decent display, it is no good shoving the odd random bulb in here and there as is often seen, they need to be planted en masse.
I would like to say every colour imaginable can be yours, but as yet, despite years and years and years of hybrid breeding and cross pollination no one has ever grown either a true black or a true blue tulip. I am sure if it ever happens that person will become a millionaire overnight.
Wonderful
Next stop Keukenhof
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All those tulups! This looks really cool, I'd like to see fields like that...I mean in person.
cheers @galenkp most enjoyable little visit. got to love the pretty flowers
I have never been to Keukenhof, so I'm looking forward to your post. I'm avoiding this place due to too many tourists.
I love visiting the tulips fields. There are so many of them that you can just drive in the region and simply pick one.
It's nice to see all those colorful flowers again. I have some of them in my garden but definitely not that many colors. And if there would be that blue one then I would be a customer 🙂
Thank you for sharing!
cheers @delishtreats , thanks for your comments , you would not have enjoyed Keukenhof, it was packed out with visitors.
@grindle I know that you had an amazing trip through those photos. The flower farm looks spacious. I wish to set foot there.
cheers @sophronia thanks for stopping by, I am glad you enjoyed my trip and brought you a little corner of The Netherlands
You don't come across as an excursion, let alone a flower guy 😃
Seems like this place has a very different vibe from Keukenhof I particularly like the vast fields of tulips and loved the Pinmapple tulip map! Look forward to your Kuenkenhof post to compare the two visits
In general I am not, but I was not travelling alone, and it was a birthday present. I love my garden and love my flowers( I am deeper than I make out lol). But to be honest, I love most things I can point my lens at.
I'd love so much to have a cycling trip across the Holland -- so many magical sightseeing stuff. ☘️ Those tulip fields are simply stunning.
cheers @qwerrie lots to see, lots of cycle friendly roads.... and very few hills
Love the pinmapple map!!! But yeah, I recently attended a flower market and I know the feeling of walking through so much colour and parts of nature, but damn, those fields with tulips are absolutely stunning!!!
cheers @gabrielatravels , colour as far as the eye can see, reminded me of the sunflowers and lavender fields from the summer last year in the Balkans
Hiya, @choogirl here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Top 3 in Daily Travel Digest #1870.
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wow! @choogirl @pinmapple Top 3, thank you very much
Beautiful to experience the fields of flowers, more interesting is in the value lays beneath the ground not above!
Pinned around the world Tulip most definitely a hit in-land in South Africa.
Brilliant visit and superb photography with a tale behind each smelly armpit, men of late do wear perfume, don't spread the news....
!LOLZ
!LUV
!PIZZA
cheers @joanstewart thanks for your kind words, but hmm? men and perfume? what next skin cream and eye brow waxing???
Then we can call you pretty, or the jester in town!
pretty LOL that's a new one
Confusion reigns supreme!
certainly in my head it does
Ditto to that....
Amazing photos. So lucky to visit tulip farms. I should return to Netherlands, somedya.
cheers @itravelrox thanks for stopping by, lucky yes, you should one day return
hopefully :D
👍, though I guess it is a long long way to travel from cebu.
I am in France. hehe!
ahhhh!!!!!!!
Aww lovely- sorry I am just seeing this. I’ve been “out of commission “. Great photos and story. Next year, I will definitely visit a tulip farm like this one - it is a different experience than Keukenhof. Your 6:00 am story is funny but true.
Yes - the invention of a black tulip will bring back Tulip mania.😀
Hope everything is ok x
Yes loved the bulb farm and Keukenhof,(too many people though).
I was struck down by migraines but I am up again😀
Yes I was shocked on my second visit. Going early is best. They do time slots - I think that helps.
The country is quite beautiful at spring time.
ah, time slots, that explains the crowds milling around outside, Sorry about the migraine, I hear it is very very nasty thing to get