About 6 weeks ago I was in the Netherlands and Belgium. Why? To see the tulips in bloom. I was assured the six weeks this tour is offered would mean that I would see some type of bulb plant in bloom. I was hoping for tulips but when the tour company changed the date of the trip to early-mid April I was concerned. The first week was basically in Belgium where we did see a lot of daffodils and hyacinth in bloom. The guide said the tour before had seen one field of tulips in bloom but he was quite sure there would be many more when we arrived back in the Netherlands – and he was right.

Actually, the most enlightening fact I learned (and should have known) is there is NO country of Holland. So why was this trip promoted as "The Windmills and Tulips of Holland"? There is a South Holland and a North Holland, but both are provinces of the country of the Netherlands. Perhaps the fact most of the bulbs come from these provinces is the reason so many Americans think the "country" is Holland.

We had a most interesting visit with a bulb grower and his wife on their bulb farm. We learned not only were we lucky to see the tulips (at least some of the varieties) in bloom but that they still had their blooms. Once a crop of tulips bloom, an inspector is called to check for virus disease. If the crop is free of disease, a special machine is used to take the bloom OFF the plant right at the top of the stem. This allows the energy to return to the bulb instead of making seed. The bulb grower is in the business of growing bulbs for sale, not the flowers. Any blooms that are not cut off by the machine are removed by hand. Can you imagine the time consuming work this procedure was before the machine was invented to do the major part of the job?

The development of a new hybrid takes approximately eight years from start until there are enough bulbs available for sale. We were amazed at the cost of such a hybrid if the bulb grower decides to sell to another producer. This bulb grower said he just sold a hybrid in the 3^rd year stage for $8,000 and probably would be another five years before it produced enough bulbs to sell.

The bulb grower recommends: 1. For the best production from your bulbs, they should be allowed to fully die back after blooming. 2. Dig the bulbs in late June-early July, sort, dry, and store in a cool dry place.

3. Plant again in the fall. 4. It doesn't make any difference if the bulb is planted right side up or down – they will turn around. I wonder if they will in our clay soil? A lot of professionals feel the same way about planting new bulbs or newly planting the healthy old stock in the fall every year as I recently heard P. Allen Smith say he plants all his bulbs in the fall. I was a bit taken back when he also said he planted 75 bulbs in one large (it wasn't huge) container for effect. RIGHT – but not many of us can afford to do that for one tiny spot of color.

All cut tulips or tulips in pots (and other bulb flowers) are grown in greenhouses for resale; they do not come from the fields. Bulbs need a period of cold before they will bloom. Being grown in greenhouses that period of time can be controlled to the day the bulb will flower to sell for Valentine's Day or Mother's Day, etc. This same principle is used at the Keukenhof Gardens located in Lisse (about an hour from Amsterdam).

This garden is basically an open-air flower bulb museum. It has 10 miles of walking paths and is also a display garden for the bulb industry. Tulip bulbs are "loaned" each year to the garden by the growers, who are eager to show off their latest hybrids but also anxious that they do not fall into competitive hands. Seven million flower bulbs are planted by hand each year including 4.5 million tulips in 100 varieties. There are 2,500 trees in 87 varieties. Besides the spectacular garden displays such as a river of blue hyacinth bordered by red tulips, to mention only one memorable design, there are indoor pavilions with vast displays of all the bulb varieties, orchids, other spring flowering shrubs and trees, there is a Historic Garden complete with a windmill, Europe's largest fountain, and a large picturesque pond populated with rented white swans. (That's another story.) The theme this year is Manhattan to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson (Dutch) stepping ashore on what he called New Amsterdam, now called Manhattan or New York City.

So did I bring home lots of bulbs? NO. Spring is not the time to buy bulbs and everybody was given fair warning that any bulbs for sale would be left over from last year's crop, plus it requires a bit of paperwork getting any crop through Customs. We were given a list of dealers in the United States and you would recognize the names among the catalogs you receive in the mail each year.

The next amazing "flower" event was FloraHolland. On 1/1/2008 Bloemenveiing Aalsmeer and the former FloraHolland merged into one company, making it the largest flower auction place on earth with six locations in the Netherlands. We made an early morning visit to the largest at Aalsmeer near the Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. This facility is basically an export auction with 13 clocks (computer screens showing all the details of the flowers being auctioned as the trolleys travel below the screens and the action being taken) in 5 auction rooms with terraced seating where the buyers sit with a computer. The cut flowers and green plants (like we purchase at your local florist) are flown or trucked to this "market", which is 10 football fields in size. We were on walks above the warehouse floor looking down at thousands and thousands of flowers of all kinds in little carts (called trolleys) attached together to be driven into the auction rooms. It is a Dutch Auction so the first buyer to click in with a bid is the buyer – no second bidder. They say it is a most stressful job as the bid can mean profit or loss. The flowers we saw auctioned that day would arrive at their destination the same day or the very next day and would be in the bouquet delivered to us from a florist in the USA two days later. FloraHolland has three export centers and three regional centers. The one thing they have in common is each location is close to the grower (or an airport to get the shipments from other European countries, South America, Africa and the Middle East). The company has a total of 13 auction rooms, 40 auction clocks, employs 4,500 people. The turnover per year is 4 BILLION euros (approximately 6 billion US $) with 12 billion flowers and plants sold. Per day the turnover is 16 million euros with 48 million flowers sold. Staggering numbers. Think about this the next time you get flowers from the florist – and wonder what kind of trip that flower has made to get to you.

Did you know hundreds of years ago a coveted tulip bulb sold for the price of a house located on one of Amsterdam's better canals? So no matter what we pay for a Dutch tulip bulb today, we are getting a bargain.

Reminder: Registrations are due early June for the Summer Kids sessions that U of I Extension Master Gardeners and Master Naturalists are teaching with Lake Land College Summer Kids program.

Here are the dates and topics:
Eating What You Grow—June 9,
Insects -- Friend or Foe—June 16
Backyard Birds—June 23

All classes are for 8-11 year olds and are held at the 4-H Extension Center on the Coles County Fairgrounds. They meet from 9:30-noon. Register by calling 234-5434 or on line at www.lakelandcollege.edu/summerkidscollege