Are tulips your favorite flower? They are at the top of the list for me. So our spring trip was a river cruise to Amsterdam with our great friends from California, to see the tulips—cancelled due to Covid, but we carried on by car.
If you love flowers, you’ve heard of the famous Keukenhof gardens, outside of Amsterdam: tulip-viewing central. We were late to the game, and they had beheaded the bright bulb-growing fields of tulips around the gardens. But no matter, the garden itself was a big surprise: huge, lushly landscaped, and still brimming with tulips in endless varietites.
A lot of the tulips were breathing their last gasp of beauty, exploding into a full, blowsy, frill of petals, floppy or feathery, which I loved.
But others were just popping out, because they use the “lasagna method” of planting. Early blooming bulbs get planted at the top, then later bloomers go below. That way, you get months of flowering.
A bit of lasagne layering:
I’ve waded through my gabillion photos to tantalize you with the best. Gaze at the gardens, and test your tulip trivia.
The gardens were beautifully landscaped:
Here are some lovelies:
Looks like a peony, but it's a tulip.
Tulips weren’t the only beauties in this park.
The garden featured lots of flora, but fauna too.
Tulip Trivia: the word “tulip” comes from a Persian word meaning “turban”.
Little white turbans:
The elusive black tulip, not yet achieved. These are black in the shade, but the sunlight reveals their aubergine genes.
In the early days, tulips were a pricey Dutch luxury item.“Flamed”, or striped tulips, were all the rage. The coloration actually originated as a virus, carried from one bulb to the next by insects. In the 1600’s, you could buy just one of these bulbs for the price of a luxury car or a house!
Try this at home! This picture shows the “lasagna method” of planting, used in these gardens to extend the season.
Some bulbs on display
Not surprisingly, the Dutch Masters loved to paint tulips
.
We saw these traditional blue Delft-ware tulip vases all over Amsterdam.
And then, of course, there was ice cream.
Favorite READS: News flash: Our loyal reader Francine Chough has written a book! And a cookbook at that, our favorite sort of livre. Even better, they are her French family recipes. It has an intriguing title: Bricks in a Pebble Sauce.You can order the book here. Felicitations, Francine!
