Travels with Forty Roses: Keukenhof Gardens

In an email today, a friend from the Bahamas asked about the tulips in the Netherlands this time of year. Realizing I have been delinquent with the blog due to other distractions, that most of you know about, here is the tulip story.

Indeed, there are oodles, masses, and buckets of these beautiful flowers. The country is in love with the tulip and has been since the Golden Age. Interesting reading about the rise of trade in tulip bulbs in the early 17th century describes a sale of 40 bulbs for 100,000 guilders, the currency of the time. This was a vast amount of money. Apparently, everyone was in on the tulip speculation and it was an economic bubble just as real estate was in 2008 or for that matter presently in Toronto and Vancouver. Along with hyacinths, fritillary, crocus, daffs, narcissus, and every type of bulb one can imagine there are tulips of every size, shape and colour. We have become somewhat blasé about the tulips due to the sheer volume of blooming bulbs. In every grocery and flower shop or flower market one can buy huge bouquets, that, with the right care, last up to 2 weeks.

We drove to Almere, the land of tulips, to visit the Keukenhof Gardens last Sunday. As it is in “the north” the gardens were not as advanced as we thought they might be coming from “the south”. All this is good news for friends who arrive April 5 and my sister and her husband arriving at the end of April. We checked with the staff who assured us the peak of the gardens would be 3 to 4 weeks off if no extended period of hot weather. So those of you on your way or with planned trips need not worry. There will be magnificent photo opportunities when you arrive. Despite our arrival early on the weekend of the Gardens opening, the tulips for viewing were stunning. An indoor exhibition of different tulip types kept us for more than 2 hours assessing each variety and colour before we even stepped outside to wander the garden grounds. An incredible amount of bulb development is carried out by the bulb industry to create stunning new varietals. I hope many Canadians planted the Canada 150 tulip as it was developed by the Dutch tulip industry especially for our 150^th celebration this year.

Below is a taste of The Keukenhof Gardens…very early in the season, with massive and glorious tulip beds yet to bloom. The fields surrounding the gardens become colour blocks of these magnificent flowers. We will try and get back to record the full impact and share more photos.