The most famous flower park - Keukenhof
In just a few hours of operation, the most famous flower exchange in the town of Aalsmeer sells 12 million cut rose buds daily. But the main pride of Dutch floriculture remains bulbous plants, in the export of which the country ranks first in the world, and the most popular are still the famous Dutch tulips.
Flowers brought from Turkey in the 16th century were exotic in Europe at that time. But the distant guests not only took root well in the light sandy soils of the polders - lands reclaimed from the sea - but also became the object of genuine passion for an entire nation. Everyone grew them - nobles and commoners, peasants and artisans, merchants and fishermen, villagers and townspeople. Bulbs of rare varieties were so expensive that a single one could make a decent dowry.
The experience and technologies for developing new varieties and growing tulips, gladioli, daffodils, and hyacinths are passed down from generation to generation, but their cultivation has long been put on an industrial basis. The product sales system developed over decades matches the scale of floriculture. Flowers are sold at specialized exchanges, of which there are several dozen in the country. These are modern large trading enterprises equipped with huge refrigeration chambers where delicate products packed in cardboard boxes are stored. Their layout is roughly the same. Each seat in the hall is equipped with a small remote control connected to a computer. Carts with flower samples are rolled out under large dials on which the maximum price offered by the producer is set. The needle runs in a circle toward the minimum price, and the one who first presses the button and stops it becomes the owner of the offered lot. The computer processes the deal and all documents necessary for concluding it in a matter of minutes.
If you happen to visit Holland in spring, be sure to visit Keukenhof - the famous flower park located some thirty kilometers from Amsterdam. It is open from late March to late May, but during this time it is visited by more than 900 thousand tourists annually. The English park, laid out on an area of 28 hectares and crossed by numerous canals and streams, is almost entirely planted with the best varieties of tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, and lilies, forming bright colorful patches in spring against the background of green lawns at the foot of trees and on hillsides.
And, of course, visiting the park will be especially interesting for those interested in landscape design. After all, here you can buy bulbs of the variety you like, packed in an elegant cardboard box with a most detailed instruction printed on it on how to grow a flower from it. Strictly follow it, and after a while a tulip or a handsome amaryllis will bloom in your country house or on the windowsill.