With a huge garden full of tulips on the Dam in Amsterdam, a new cut tulip season started on Saturday January 20 2018. Tens of thousands of people queued to pick a bunch of tulips for free. Belgium also experienced National Tulip Day for the first time with a picking garden on the Koningin Astridplein in Antwerp. In Germany the new season was celebrated with a tulip bike tour through Berlin. Arjan Smit, president of Tulpen Promotie Nederland: "As a collective of Dutch tulip growers we are especially proud this year that our neighbouring countries are celebrating Tulip Day with us."
Tulips from Amsterdam
Special guest on the Dam was actress Anneke Sluiters, star of the romance Tulipani. After Sluiters presented the new Tulipani DVD, she opened the picking garden together with Lisa Smit, Tulip Girl 2018 and Arjan Smit, president of Tulpen Promotie Nederland (TPN). The massively present public then picked tulips to their heart's content in the garden in the theme of 'Romance' this year. Arjan Smit: "It's fantastic to see that Tulip Day has grown to a day the whole sector looks forward to and actively plays into in just seven years. Florists, garden centres and supermarkets hang festive tulip flags in their stores, organise workshops and have the tulip in the spotlight on social media."
Moving borders
Besides the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany also celebrated the start of a new tulip season. Following the Dutch tulip growers, Flemish growers also laid out a picking garden on the Koningin Astridplein in Antwerp, right in front of the central train station. TV presenter Tiany Kiriloff opened the garden at 13:00. The public happily picked flowers for home despite the rain. Germany celebrated Tulip Day in Berlin with a mobile tulip garden that cycled through the city.
TPM has been setting up a huge picking garden on the Dam in Amsterdam on the third Saturday of January since 2012 to make the Netherlands (and the rest of the world) aware of the start of a new cut tulip season. The event is made possible by the input of all tulip growers in the Netherlands, A&P Flowers, Mantel VOF, H&M Flowers BV, Hobaho en de tulpenveredelaars Hybris, Remarkable Tulips and Vertuco. They are supported by many volunteers and organisations like Varga Beemster Transport, De Wit Transport, Van Straalen De Vries Transport, Royal Floraholland, Bloemenbureau Holland, gemeente Amsterdam, NBTC Holland Marketing, Noordwijk Marketing, NOVASOL and Keukenhof (opened from March 22 to May 13 2018).
source: Keukenhof