Blooming tulip fields in Holland. A guide to the tulip fields of the Netherlands. Where to find tulip fields in Holland

The first specimens of tulips were brought to Holland from Vienna by professor of botany Charles de l’Ecluse in 1570. This marked the beginning of an entire nation's craze for tulips, known as tulip mania. For rare specimens of this flower they paid from 2,000 to 4,000 florins. There is a story about one copy, for which the buyer paid an entire beer for 30,000 florins. Prices were set at the Haarlem stock exchange, where tulips became the subject of speculation. At the beginning of the 17th century, over the course of three years, transactions for tulips worth more than 10 million florins were made.

Many industrialists abandoned their production and took up growing tulips. As a result, many went bankrupt, and the government was forced to take action against this mania. The immoderate passion for tulips also gave rise to the opposite reaction: people appeared who could not stand tulips and destroyed them mercilessly. Tulip mania finally stopped when English gardens and various new flowers began to spread.

In 1986, mass cultivation of tulips on an industrial basis began in the Netherlands, and now the flowers are one of the main export items of the state.

Tulip fields

Flower fields are not just scattered chaotically throughout the country. They are mainly concentrated around flower auctions and around the Keukenhof park.

The location close to auctions is very pragmatic and allows farmers to quickly deliver their products for sale.

The most visited among tourists are the fields of tulips, daffodils and hyacinths around Keukenhof, namely in Lisse. This is explained not only by the worldwide fame of the park itself, but also by the fact that Lisse is extremely easy to get to by bus from Lieden.

Flower auctions

Tourists will be interested in visiting flower auctions. It's both funny and educational. After all, auctions are held not only to sell as many tulips as possible, but also to entertain the public.

Bidding begins at sunrise. The auction is open all year round, but the best time to visit the Land of Tulips is spring and summer. It is during these seasons that the entire territory of Holland is covered with multi-colored rectangles, on which tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, and lilies bloom in turn. Kilometers of neat plantings stretch into the distance, delighting visitors to the country and local residents.

Tulip season in Holland

The tulip blooming season in Holland lasts from mid-April to mid-May. Numerous vast fields with tulips and other flowers are located throughout the state, especially in the coastal part of the North Sea, near the cities of The Hague and Leiden. Flower fields with tulips in the drained pond Beimster near Amsterdam are protected by UNESCO.

Keukenhof Park is distinguished by a special abundance of flowering and a variety of varieties of tulips in Holland. Flowers planted in even rows and in shaped flowerbeds of rich colors spread a wonderful aroma around. Every year at least 7 million flower bulbs are planted in Keukenhof, most of which are tulips. Tourists who come to Amsterdam take varietal bulbs with them for cultivation at home or on a plot of land.

The park is open annually from March 24 to May 20. Recently, guests can see the magical park from tourist planes.

When is the tulip holiday in Holland?

For two days at the end of April, the Tulip Festival takes place in Amsterdam. Many tourists are planning a trip to the Netherlands by this time. It's worth it - the spectacle is truly impressive! Competing in skill, landscape designers create original flower arrangements. Flower parades are held throughout the country. Cars and river rafts are decorated with thousands of colorful tulips, and music and dance groups perform everywhere.

Every spring, the fields near Holland are covered with endless waves of flowers. From March to May, bulbs begin to bloom - hyacinths, tulips and many others. In addition to the rainbow of colors, waves of aroma and great mood rise over the country. The Dutch tulip fields stretch along the Bloembollenstreek coastal strip, 30 miles long from Haarlem to Leiden. It is a low-lying area with a mild climate and sandy soils, making it ideal for growing bulbs.

The best way to see the sights is to take a bike and ride along the road from Oude-Wetering to Gouda or from Gouda to Willemstad. The Dutch tulip fields there are framed by traditional windmills. On this route you can get to Aalsmeer for a flower auction, visit Keukenhofs Park with its gardens, and see a sea of flowers from 7 million bulbs.

The Bloemenmarkt flower market in Amsterdam offers a wide variety of plants and cut flowers.

The area of Keukenhof Park is about 32 hectares and it is planted with seven million bulbs annually

The Bloemenmarkt flower market is located on the Singel canal and is considered the only floating flower market in the world. There are many stalls selling all kinds of flowers, plants, bulbs and seeds.

It was the mild, humid climate of Holland that made it ideal for growing flower bulbs.

Tulips were first brought to Holland in the mid-16th century from the Ottoman Empire.

The low-lying part of the country along the North Sea coast is covered with fields of hyacinths, gladioli, lilies, crocuses, daffodils and tulips. Naftalan looks no less beautiful at this time

Keukenhof Park is part of the hunting grounds of the ancient Teilingen Castle.

The main theme of this year's exhibition in Keukenhof was the Country of Poets and Philosophers, Germany.

Keukenhof Park is located near the city of Lisse in the province of South Holland.

May 29th, 2012 , 09:45 pm

In March and April, a real tulip mania takes over Holland. At this time, the country is covered with carpets of tulips. It is not surprising that hotel prices rise at this time and this time is considered the high tourist season in the Netherlands.

The Netherlands is the world's largest producer of tulips! More than three billion tulips bloom here, 2/3 of which are exported to other countries of the world.
We also became infected with tulip mania, intentionally, for 1 day :)

For one of the days I planned a visit to Keukenhof Park and the tulip fields in its vicinity. I allocated very little time to the park itself, because I can see something similar in our botanical garden, but seeing tulip fields is the dream of my life.

Arriving at the park, near its entrance we rented bicycles for the day. Cost 13 euros per day.
I was very worried because... I haven’t ridden a bike for almost 20 years, and only a week before departure I trained a little with friends. We were given a card for 1.5 euros, which is difficult to name. It offered routes of 5, 10, 20 and 40 km. Having left the parking lot, we followed the route, but there were no signs placed on the route itself. In the end, it seems that we went in a completely different direction, but we still saw a lot of interesting things.

The very first field was adjacent directly to the park and was clearly the most trampled, as evidenced by signs and wire - do not walk through our fields.

But because This was practically the only field accessible on foot, there were still crowds of tourists here and those passing by paid little attention to the inscriptions.

To be honest, when you see such a sea of flowers, few people notice the inscriptions.

The remaining fields were completely free to visit.

Unfenced and accessible.

How can you not take a picture of this miracle? :)

The fact is that almost all fields are privately owned by farmers or farms. Right there, near each field there are residential houses or utility barns.

Here we slightly disturbed someone's pair of geese. At the top right you can see two necks with firebrands :)

And houses.

Nearby is a meadow.

And grazing horses on it.

We rode from field to field, despite the morning rain and not very sunny day, the tulips were blooming and fragrant.

And here are our geese that we disturbed :)

Farmers are cleaning, swarming around their houses. This photo shows that many of the tulips have already been cut.

Before the trip, I was worried that the tulips would have already fallen, because we arrived at the fields on May 2nd. She even tortured our landlord when they cut the tulips.
He assured me that all the tulips would be in place by May 8th.

Basically, tulips are grown for their bulbs.

Daffodils and hyacinths are also grown.

Farmers domesticate strange roe deer.

Also, llamas are bred everywhere.

They break in the horses.

As far as I understand, these are fields of hyacinths (but I could be wrong). Irrigation pipes are installed right under the field, and the flowers themselves are still in the greenhouse.

Farming is going on here stubbornly. work.

Farmers walk along the rows. We talked to one of them. He explained that he was looking for tulips with viruses and pulling them out so that they would not infect others. He pulled out one diseased flower and showed it to me. Beautiful orange variegated stripes were visible inside it. I was surprised that a virus could look so beautiful.

Also, he said that the bulbs I bought at the market are unlikely to sprout, because the best ones for sprouting are those in September.

Imagine, before, for just one tulip bulb you could buy an entire house in the center of Amsterdam or feed your family for a whole year! But not every bulb could get that kind of money. In 1625-1637 there was a peak of tulip mania in Holland. And some types of tulips, variegated or fringed, could easily sell for a fortune. There is even a monument in Amsterdam that says that 3 tulip bulbs were sold for 2 stone houses.

Many were selling bulbs that had been planted and had been in the ground for many months, from November to June. This trade was called "wind trade." The deal was supported only by paper, which could change several owners over these months.

Many sold their houses to buy bulbs and start a new business. The state could not resist tulip mania.
Everything calmed down only when an oversupply of tulips led to a decline in prices and dealers went bankrupt, many losing their savings. Of course, trading in wind will not lead to any good.
The tulip failure forced the government to introduce some trade restrictions on the product.

Only in the 20th century did it become clear that the variegation and fringe of the tulip skirt was a consequence of the mosaic virus. A healthy flower has a solid, bright color. The virus was transmitted by insects from infected peach trees and potato bushes. Diseased flowers are no longer sold and what we see now, with fringe and unusual buds, is the result of persistent gene mutations.

On average, it takes about 15 years to grow a new type of tulip. But how to grow a perfectly black or popular orange tulip (the royal family's last name sounds like "orange")?

The blacks of Haarlem wanted to have their own black tulip and turned to the botanists of the world. The botanists struggled with the order for a long time and no one was able to fulfill it. Until one of them received a black tulip that faded into blue. In truth, he was not completely black; nature cannot perform such a miracle. But he was as similar as possible. In honor of the birth of the unusual black tulip, a grand holiday was declared on May 15, 1637.

I couldn’t resist and, finally, I also took a photo in tulips.

My finds in the fields :)

Hid

Of course, living near the fields is very cool, there are fresh flowers every day.

Because of the terrible map, we constantly needed to use an iPad so as not to get lost :)

We make our way back to the park, because we need to have time to run there as well. By the way, how do you like these paths for transport and cyclists? :)

We meet a huge inflatable ant, in general, it was clearly blown away from somewhere by the wind and got entangled in the trees.

We hand over our bikes and go to the park. Bicycle rental is open until half past five.

May 22nd, 2012

The very first field was adjacent directly to the park and was clearly the most trampled, as evidenced by signs and wire - do not walk through our fields.

But because This was practically the only field accessible on foot, there were still crowds of tourists here and those passing by paid little attention to the inscriptions.

To be honest, when you see such a sea of flowers, few people notice the inscriptions.

The remaining fields were completely free to visit.

Unfenced and accessible.

How can you not take a picture of this miracle? :)

The fact is that almost all fields are privately owned by farmers or farms. Right there, near each field there are residential houses or utility barns.

Here we slightly disturbed someone's pair of geese. At the top right you can see two necks with firebrands :)

And houses.

Nearby is a meadow.

And grazing horses on it.

We rode from field to field, despite the morning rain and not very sunny day, the tulips were blooming and fragrant.

And here are our geese that we disturbed :)

Farmers are cleaning, swarming around their houses. This photo shows that many of the tulips have already been cut.

Basically, tulips are grown for their bulbs.

Daffodils and hyacinths are also grown.

Farmers domesticate strange roe deer.

Also, llamas are bred everywhere.

They break in the horses.

As far as I understand, these are fields of hyacinths (but I could be wrong). Irrigation pipes are installed right under the field, and the flowers themselves are still in the greenhouse.

Farming is going on here stubbornly. work.

Farmers walk along the rows. We talked to one of them. He explained that when he looks for tulips with viruses, he pulls them out so that they don’t infect others. He pulled out one diseased flower and showed it to me. Beautiful orange variegated stripes were visible inside it. I was surprised that a virus could look so beautiful.

Also, he said that the bulbs I bought at the market are unlikely to sprout, because the best ones for sprouting are those in September.

On average, it takes about 15 years to grow a new type of tulip. But how to grow a perfectly black or popular orange tulip (the royal family's last name sounds like "orange")?

I couldn’t resist and, finally, I also took a photo in tulips.

My finds in the fields :)

Hid

Of course, living near the fields is very cool, there are fresh flowers every day.

Because of the terrible map, we constantly needed to use an iPad so as not to get lost :)

We make our way back to the park, because we need to have time to run there as well. By the way, how do you like these paths for transport and cyclists? :)

We meet a huge inflatable ant, in general, it was clearly blown away from somewhere by the wind and got entangled in the trees.

We hand over our bikes and go to the park. Bicycle rental is open until half past five.

The most famous location for a photo shoot in the tulip fields is, of course, the Dutch Royal Tulip Park Keukenhof. Almost every girl, woman, and grandmother dreams of coming here. By the way, there are more men among Chinese visitors.

The park was founded in 1840. It is located 30 km from Amsterdam, in the town of Lisse. And it works a little less than 2 months a year - from late March to mid-May. In 2018, the park will be open from March 22 to May 13.

Already at the entrance to the city of Lisse, huge tulip fields begin. But in this part of the country they are cut early; in May the picture in the fields looks like this:

But the fields can still be found along the highway in the north of the Netherlands, around the cities of Drachten and Groningen.

Today in Holland, more than 22 thousand hectares of land are allocated for growing tulips, on which about three billion flowers grow. Two thirds of them are exported, and only one third remains in the country. Tulips are the Netherlands' most important export product. By the way, the first tulips were brought from Constantinople in the 1550s. It’s amazing how flowers born in Asia have gotten along and taken root in the northern country.

In the Lisse area you can see huge harvesters cutting ripe tulips and packaging those that have passed computer quality control into bouquets. And those that do not meet the quality remain by the wayside

Next to the park there is a market where the assortment of fresh bouquets and bulbs is many times greater than that at the famous Bloemenmarkt flower market in the center of Amsterdam. Here is a bouquet of 50 tulips in Lisse costs 3-5 euros, in Amsterdam 10 euros:

And we waste no time and go into the park.

The entrance ticket costs 16-17 euros, parking costs 6 euros. There are transfers to the park by bus or train from Amsterdam Airport, Central Station and Haarlem. In this case, tickets are combined and range from 24.5 to 35 euros (depending on the starting point, the cost for a round trip). Read more about transfers.

We arrived by car on May 5th. We were afraid of seeing only wilted flower beds, but we were lucky with cold weather the week before our trip.
We admire the pictures:

There should have been colorful fields of tulips in this place, but there were only pale daffodils. The tulips have already been cut. The park has 3 panoramic platforms, which should offer a beautiful view of the fields in April, but not in May:

Different varieties. By the way, the main pride of a Dutchman is that a new variety of tulips will be named after you.

Postcards for all women's holidays are ready for many years to come:

The main flowerbed meets us at the entrance to the park:

Landscape of the park. Please also note the small number of visitors. We arrived at about 15:00. The park closes at 19:30. We ran almost until closing, we missed something, but we still had a lot of impressions:

And we luckily found ourselves in the blossoming of fruit trees. The tulip fields were missed, but the trees in combination with the flower beds were simply wow:

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The visitor fits harmoniously into the background

Recently, helicopter rides have also been organized in the park.

In addition to flower beds and fields, the park has 3 indoor greenhouses where flower festivals are organized. In 2017, we couldn’t take our eyes off the colorful bouquets in one of the pavilions:

The scenery is very cool:

You should definitely visit the pavilions!

Orchid Pavilion:

So, you definitely need to visit the Royal Tulip Park at least once! It operates from late March to mid-May. Specifically, each year you need to check the opening dates on the park’s website.

Tickets to Amsterdam from the most popular cities:

In general, interesting price offers for this period (March-May) appear around January. KLM airline regularly launches sales on air tickets after the winter holidays.
Accommodation in Amsterdam itself costs above the European average, but you can look for some very interesting hotels further away from Amsterdam itself. Thus, see a country that is very different from the capital.

We traveled all over the Netherlands from Belgium (Antwerp) to Germany (Bremen). Incredible and very interesting. Therefore, in addition to Amsterdam, you can include the following cities in your trip:
1. The Hague. We are delighted with the Madurodam miniature park and the embankment. Interesting places to visit are the Louwman Museum and the Peace Palace.
2. Rotterdam captivates with modern architecture. And the Kinderdijk mill complex.
3. The Belgian-Dutch town of Baarle-Hertog, walking through which you cross the border between Belgium and the Netherlands 24 times!!!
4. An open-air park with mills and local industries in Zaandam
By the way, this entire route with a visit to Keukenhof (Tulip Park) took us only 3 days. But it’s not worth repeating)))
Route St. Petersburg - Paris for 3 weeks, through 8 countries

Have a pleasant trip and lots of impressions to YOU!