Its again this special time of the year....MY favourite time of the year in the Netherlands...For three weeks every April the part of land between Leiden and Amsterdam called "Bollenstreek" tranforms itself in a huge, colourful and magnificent carpet of colours & flowers: yellow daffodils, pink hyacinths, red/pink/white tulips....
Did you ever wonder how many tulips grow in the low lands? Its huge amount indeed: the Netherlands produces 4.32 billion tulip bulbs, of which 2.3 billion (53%) are used as the starting material for the cultivation of cut flowers. Not fewer than 1.3 billion of these (57%) are grown in the Netherlands as cut flowers. The remainder goes to countries within the EU (0.63 billion) and outside the EU (0.37 billion). The main buyers outside the EU are Japan with 179 million, the US with 147 million, Norway with 60 million and Canada with 48 million bulbs.
From total of 15 countries being tulip producers the Netherlands is also the country with the largest production area with 10,800 hectares (88%). The next 5 main countries are Japan (300 hectares, 2.5%), France (293 hectares, 2.4%), Poland (200 hectares, 1.6%), Germany (155 hectares, 1.3%) and New Zealand (122 hectares, 1%).
Thats why I like to call the Netherlands the "Tulipland...at least in April nobody will wonder why:-)
It's just amazingly beautiful... When I took the train, I was amazed. I only used to see these kind of mass plantation in posters...and now am really in HERE! Wow!
ReplyDeleteColorful and beautiful!
Yes, even in Philippines before I saw the brand called "Holland Flowers" and lots of Tulips in there... and expensive huh!
ReplyDeleteIn the US of A, I used to work for a call center in there, though I did not live there and Tulip is one of the most expensive flowers...Why do you think? It goes as high as $2.50 per bulb before and that was 2006 huh!
ReplyDeletedear Roj,
ReplyDeletein 1636-1637 there was even a "tulip fever" in the Netherlands, one sort of tulip was then sold for an exceptional price, bigger than the price of a whole house!
did u know that the tulip is actually a wild flower from Asia, it came to Europe via Turkey:)
cheers,
Jana
Nice pictures and interesting stories about the tulips :-)
ReplyDeleteIt's funny I have the same pics on my PC :-)
Dearie,
ReplyDeleteMay I borrow your photo here? I want to make a short story out of it, but of course, if the photo is clicked, the clicker will be routed here... Please let me know if yes or no. ^^
The one that's a tulip close up shot.
Thanks.