A piece of the flower brings one joy. What if you would visit a flower field of it? Throughout the world, The Netherlands has captivated the hearts of many for its beautiful and seemingly endless tulip flower fields. In fact, the Netherlands is the greatest commercial producer of tulips in the world, exporting over three billion each year. Visiting one of their famous flower fields has been part of many people’s bucket lists.
From mid-March to mid-May, a portion of the Netherlands is converted into a large sea of flowers. Crocus season begins in March and is followed by daffodils and hyacinths. Finally, the tulips display their magnificent colors from mid-April until the first week of May. The Fields are awash in vibrant hues.
The Netherlands’ extended spring season and calm nights make it ideal for tulip cultivation. The polders’ soil is constantly drained, providing ideal growing conditions for tulip bulbs. The flower prefers well-drained but moist soil.
Between mid-March and late May, the tulips transform large swaths of The Netherlands into a vibrant patchwork quilt. If you visit The Netherlands in April, be sure to see the tulips; fields awash in vibrant hues will greet you everywhere.
Best time to visit the flower fields.
Travel to the Netherlands in mid-April to witness the tulips at their most spectacular. Tulip season lasts from late March to mid-May, however, the flowers are often at their peak in mid-April. In the spring, the Keukenhof in Lisse blooms with around 7 million flower bulbs. It is one of the best locations to discover numerous varieties of tulips. However, at this time of year, all you need to do is hop on a train or rent a bicycle to witness the tulips in their full beauty in rural fields.
Many people are asking about the location of the Dutch flower fields. There are various spots in the Netherlands where you may see tulips in the spring. Around Keukenhof Tulip Gardens, only 40 kilometers from Amsterdam, is the most famous location with the most stunning flower fields. ‘Bollenstreek’ is the name of the location.
The Bollenstreek is located between the towns of Amsterdam, Leiden, Haarlem, and The Hague, behind the North Sea dunes. Numerous flower fields abound with tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths. The Bollenstreek is also well-known for its authentic Dutch countryside vistas. Which look stunning when combined with the colored fields.
Every tulip season in the Netherlands, people come to the Keukenhof Flower Gardens and Dutch fields to experience the assortment of blooms, bulbs, and tulips on show.
As many people across the world seek to enjoy the beauty of the ethereal tulips flower fields, let’s dig deeper to know more about this flower.
The flower Tulips
Tulipa is a genus of approximately 100 bulbous herbs in the lily family (Liliaceae), endemic to Central Asia and Turkey. Tulips are one of the most popular garden flowers, and there have been countless cultivars and types developed.
The tulip is a spring-flowering bulbous member of the lily family. You would not be incorrect if you asserted a connection between the tulip and the onion. Also, Tulip blossoms are typically vibrantly colored, cup-shaped, and astonishingly symmetrical. The term “tulip” is believed to originate from the Persian word for turban, which the blossom resembles.
The History of the flower Tulip in The Netherlands
While tulips are extremely popular in the Netherlands, they did not originate there. They have originated in Central Asia’s Tien Shan mountain ranges and had been cultivated for decades by gardeners in the Ottoman Empire. Tulips were unusual and exotic plants that quickly captured the imagination of Western Europe. The introduction to the Netherlands on a formal basis happened at the end of the 16th century.
In addition, Tulip cultivation originated in Persia (Iran) in the tenth century and evolved into an emblem of the Ottoman Empire. Tulips were brought to the Western world by Augier Ghislain de Busbecq, the Viennese ambassador to Turkey, who wrote in 1551 about viewing the plants in Edirne, Turkey, and later delivered seeds to Austria.
Furthermore, the arrival of a cargo of tulip bulbs from Constantinople (now Istanbul) in Antwerp in 1562 heralded the start of Europe’s horticultural tulip business. Carolus Clusius is a French botanist who was an ardent bulb grower. In addition, he sometimes attributed to the spread of other spring bulbs such as hyacinths and irises throughout Europe. He was an early recipient of these flowers. He founded a botanic garden at the University of Leiden in the 1590s and cultivated tulips there. Broken tulips (tulips that bloom in streaks or flames of color) came from Clusius’s garden in 1596. In 1598, the genetically diverse seeds of those stolen flowers established a thriving tulip trade. The Tulip Mania refers to a speculative craze over tulips that occurred in the Netherlands between 1633 and 1637.
Indeed, although the original source of the tulip’s introduction to Northwestern Europe is unknown, the most frequently accepted story is that Oghier Ghislain de Busbecq, Emperor Ferdinand I’s ambassador to Suleyman the Magnificent, saw the lovely tulip blossoms flowering in the Suleyman’s royal gardens.
The Tulip Mania
The University of Leiden employed Carolus Clusius to conduct research on therapeutic herbs. During his stay, De Busbecq decided to send him a few for his Leiden garden. This was the beginning of the Dutch bulb fields.
At the beginning of the 17th century, Tulips captured the heart of many people. Thus, they began using Tulips as garden ornaments. They quickly established themselves as an important commercial commodity in Holland and other regions of Europe.
The flowers generated enormous curiosity, and bulbs were sold at unfathomably high prices. The tulips in Leiden would eventually result in the Netherlands experiencing “Tulip Mania.” Between 1596 and 1598, Carolus Clusius’ garden was robbed of over a hundred bulbs.
Since then, the beautiful flower Tulip has been an integral part of the Netherlands. In fact, when Dutch Princess Margriet was born at Canada’s Ottawa Civic Hospital in 1943, the Dutch royal family fled the country to escape the European war. Each year, the Dutch royal family brings 10,000 bulbs to Ottawa during the tulip festival as a token of gratitude.
Moreover, the beauty of the flower fields in the Netherlands did not only provide awe and beauty to the tourist but also brought many opportunities to their locals!