Dutch tulip fields...

As every year end of April is the time one can bike, walk or drive in the middle of the Dutch flower fields...Usually one may admire first the daffodils, then the hyacinths and last but not least the famous tulips...But as last winter was so long and cold this spring offers all fields at once:-)

Some visitors still get completely shock when the experience the "cutting tulip head"-rituals. Yes, the Dutch dont bother or sell the flowersone see, they plant them for the bulbs.

The Netherlands produces some 4.32 billion tulip bulbs, of which 2.3 billion (53%) are used as the starting material for the cultivation of cut flowers. No 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.