First Day of Spring I Tulip Love I Netherlands 2011

By Lisa Catherine Brown

Ah, spring! Can we exclaim this enough in the northern hemisphere today? The days get longer and warmer. The rains come and the earth greens. Color and scent that have been dormant burst forth. The birds return and those brave enough to have weathered winter with us are preening in color as well. Ah, spring!

The landscape is beckoning – blackberry thickets are deepening to purple greens, tiny buds can be seen on the early blooming dogwood and forsythia - evidence of much anticipated spring – but most promising are the crocus, hyacinth, iris and tulip leaves I discover. Pushing their way up toward the warming sun, those knife-like sprouts give assurance of a new season to even the greyest of days.

10 Billion Tulip Bulbs Say Rejoice!

Nowhere in the world do the promises of spring bring more excitement, wealth and fascinating history as the northern Netherlands where more than 3 billion tulips decorate the landscape for a mere couple of weeks. These tulips are harvested and two-thirds exported, mostly to the US and Germany. An estimated 10 billion bulbs are produced each year with 75% of the Dutch bulbs being exported.

A Long, Nurtured Love Affair

When a tulip flowers the original bulb disappears and a clone bulb takes its place. Additional clone bulbs can propagate from one flower as well. Tulips can also be started from seeds but the process can take anywhere from 5-12 years for a seed to grow into a flowering bulb.

In the Netherlands, after harvesting the tulips the bulbs are sorted into classes. Gladioli and vegetables are grown in their place and in the fall mature cloned bulbs are planted for the following spring delight. Cultivating the most enchanting varieties can take years.

Tulip Trade Routes

While associated with the Netherlands now, tulips are indigenous to parts of Africa, Asia and Europe and were brought to the Netherlands from the Ottoman Empire where they were first cultivated. Bulbs were traded on the Silk Road. Wild patches of tulips still can found along the trade route but the flowers do not resemble the sophisticated tulips we are familiar with today.

The legends surrounding who, how and why the bulbs came to be cultivated in the Netherlands are several and uncertain but it is agreed that tulips made their first appearance during the last decade of the 1500’s. A generation or so later tulips were a considerable commodity possible of bringing great wealth to Dutch families. A frenzy known as Tulip Mania gave life to futures trading and risky borrowing and lending practices. When the craze abruptly ended fortunes were lost and debts went unpaid.

The first tulips in the United States are accounted to have been grown in Lynn and Salem, Massachusetts by a wealthy landowner in the mid 1850’s.

The Netherlands countryside is flat land at or below sea level and the farming industry makes it one of the world’s greatest exporters of food. It is a densely populated country with cities being crowded and congested. Rivers, canals and dikes are prolific and it makes sense that is what has created such ideal condition for successful agricultural outputs.

In the spring tulip excursions are available via many means. The view from the air reveals colorful, beribboned land below while eco-friendly ‘whisper boats’ are available as a means to tour the Keukenhof gardens. Bicycle, bus and motorcycle tours are common.

Anne and I wish for all of our AOC friends and family Happy Spring and Good Cheer throughout 2011 and to share these images of northern Netherland’s tulips in celebration of many glorious days ahead together.

Enjoy, be happy, and know that the gifts of spring are bestowed on us not just during this season of renewal and growth, but also upon your heart, throughout your lives. Ah, Spring! Lisa

And with much love a happy birthday to my oldest daughter, always a spring chicka! Mom