But first, it became Winter…

Colourful, enthusiastic, loyal, optimistic, and confident. Experienced gardeners know what I’m talking about: Dahlias. A Dahlia Tuber. Ugly, right? 

But before I will start trying to sell you all kinds of bulbs and tubers with beautiful prose and my best photographs, I would like to wish you a very happy 2025. Just as I was thinking about how to phrase my new year’s message to you all, I got a text message from a dear gardening friend of mine. She captured everything perfectly, so to quote her: “Dear friends, I wish you all the very best for 2025, with lots of fun with friends, plenty of smiles, beautiful flowers, happy bulbs, and a healthy body.” Dahlia Bluetiful 

We are looking forward to the new year. We are rolling up our sleeves and are ready to get back to work: we hope to be able to make as many people happy with their flower bulbs this year as we did the last. We are looking forward to everyone’s beautiful gardens this year. 

As of today, you can go back to shopping in our web shop. We have greased the wheels of every single shopping cart, so you can take your time looking through the assortment! Amaryllis Blossom Nymph

The Amaryllises will remain available, too. I did want to talk to you about the image of the Amaryllis. The biggest Amaryllis grower of the Dutch Westland himself said the words “When you see an Amaryllis, you see a walker,” and I had to laugh, but I am also genuinely surprised that this is true. The same goes for its image as a Christmas flower… Such nonsense in this day and age!

The Amaryllis is beautiful in any scenario, with her many different colours and happy energy. It is a true winter flower, you know, for the entire stretch of time between Christmas and Easter… and in between, she can hopefully also serve as decoration for those who celebrate Eid al-Fitr, because the Amaryllis is, in my opinion, the a great flower for every household and occasion. Around that time and Easter, the early Spring flowers will have made an appearance as well, but Amaryllises can be enjoyed until the very end of winter, and they should be! Amaryllises give the winter months much needed colour. With the Amaryllises in my greenhouse, I always aim to have them start flowering after New Year’s. With January Amaryllises, Blue Monday won’t be able to get to you. This is my greenhouse at the moment. It seems as if the Amaryllises are in full bloom, but these are only the first ones that are coming up. Most of them still have to make an appearance, and if you are in the Fluwel neighbourhood, you are welcome to come have a look

We have another flower in our assortment with the senior-with-a-walker-vibe, this time a Summer flower: the Begonia. Begonia’s are, at least in The Netherlands, seen as the quintessential retirement-flower…  A Begonia tuber covered in roots 

The Begonia is a real hard worker in the garden. She can flower like there is no tomorrow, you can’t miss her when she is around. She brings such a cosy look to any garden, and I feel like we don’t have as large of an assortment of Begonia’s as we do other flowers, but the Begonia is still the flower that we get the most surprised reactions about. People come back to tell us just how many flowers they’ve seen during the season. And yes, there are always people who complain, that they needed to take out all of the dried out flowers out of the plant, for example, but I feel like these are the same people as the ones that never throw a party because they don’t want to deal with the empty glasses. The Begonia is simply stunning, and if you’ve never tried her, she should be on your 2025 resolutions list!  The picture above was sent to us by a happy customer, this is Begonia On Top Sunset Shades, gorgeous 

Another thing entirely is the Dahlia. Did you know that the Dahlia used to have a crashed reputation as well? Not even five years ago, there was no stale bread to be made by selling Dahlias–the growers were really going through it. But then we all had to stay home due to a virus we don’t have to talk about right now, and many people started to look into gardening when they never had before, just as experienced gardeners suddenly had more time to be outside, too. And the best thing happened: the Dahlia gor rediscovered. Dahlias are in high demand now, it really changed over the course of a single year, and if you ask me, the Dahlia fully deserves it, too.  Dahlia Missis Miley 

You know I love the Dahlia, too. The Tulip may be the uncrowned Queen of Spring, but for me, the Dahlia holds that title during Summer. She has flowers for literal months, and you can keep on picking them and bring them into your home too.

We have tried our very best to make our assortment as interesting as possible. Vlad told me that we offer over a 100 varieties, and 21 of those are new this year! But I’m going to wrap it up now, because I have plans later today, I’ll tell you more about the Dahlia next week. I need to get to the train to go to Amsterdam, where I am meeting my friends with whom I started the Amsterdam Tulip Museum years and years ago. We are young men (the 60+ version of young) and we like to ‘fish old cows out of the ditch,’ as we say in Dutch: talk about things that happened half a lifetime ago and reminisce and laugh together, you know how it is. It’s been a while since Tim and I convinced Sjoerd to start the Amsterdam Tulip Museum with us, and it was a great time in our life.

We aren’t still part of it–Sjoerd now mans the shop in Amsterdam (it’s on the Prinsengracht, if you’re in the neighbourhood) and Tim is the conservator of the Museum. We tapped out when we started our Land van Fluwel, but it’s still a beautiful place. See you next week.

Kind regards, 

Carlos van der Veek Roselily Anouska

Almost forgot to tell you! Last year, the Lilies were not our usual Fluwel quality. The harvest was bad and they were smaller than we normally want. But this year, they are back to their usual style! What you’re used to from Fluwel. And the best part: Roselily Anouska and Lilium auratum are back after having had a little break.