Tulips

Dutch tulips have always appealed to people’s imagination.
In 1636 bulbs of the famous tulip Semper Augustus were sold at the Haarlem tulipmarket for 2000 guilders apiece. That amount was thirteen times the annual wage of a bricklayer and 400 guilders more than the payment received by Rembrandt for his “Nightwatch” painting. These exorbitant tulipprices arose because of the hysterical speculation with tulips, the so called tulipmania in the thirties of the 17th century.

Spring colours

In spring the fields behind the dunes in the western Netherlands are still in full bloom: tulips, chrysanthemums and other flowers show us their magnificent display of colour.

Keukenhof

The Keukenhof is a famous place which attracts thousands of visitors from home and abroad at the end of March, April and the beginning of May.
Many bulbfields were laid out on levelled old dunes because of the calcareous soil and good water balance.

World’s greatest flower auction

Besides bulb-growing the Netherlands also have an extensive production of cut flowers, concentrated in the greenhouse area round Aalsmeer, about 20 kilometres south of Amsterdam. Via Amsterdam Airport the cut flowers are transported all over the world. The Aalsmeer auction is the largest flowerauction in the world. Here, every day, the world price for flowers and plants is set in the largest trade building in the world. (766,000 square meters) On the 13 auction clocks nearly 20 million flowers and 2 million plants are sold every day, supplied by 7000 growers all over the world.