Tulip season in the Netherlands puts pageantry of blooms on display
LISSE, Netherlands — Nothing says springtime like the tulip season in the Netherlands. The vast Dutch sky hangs low against rectangles of color — majestic purples, regal reds, bright yellows, eye-popping white.
Tulip fields dot the countryside from Haarlem to The Hague, but the centerpiece of tulip-watching is Keukenhof park in Lisse, some 20 miles southeast of Amsterdam. Here, the tulip hunter is rewarded with artistic compositions of tulips with their seasonal brethren, hyacinths, daffodils, crocuses and other springtime varieties.
Gardeners begin planting nearly 80 acres with over 7 million tulips, daffodils and hyacinths in mid-September to prepare for the eight-week spectacle that runs at Keukenhof from mid-March through mid-May. The hand-planting by 40 gardeners takes three months. More than a million tourists visit the gardens each year.
The thrill of the tulip bloom has inspired one intrepid Dutch businessman to plant fields abroad. Last spring, he drew thousands of tourists to a field of 250,000 tulips near Milan — exporting their fascination and making a business selling the cut flowers.
But perhaps the reason so many people flock to see the Dutch tulip fields in the Netherlands isn’t just a tribute to nature’s pageantry, but the fact that the easy-to-grow tulip bulb can be transported to any yard and garden, transforming them with a flash of springtime color.
When wandering Keukenhof, inspirations abound, and there is the clear edict: Do try this at home.