The Latest Ladies’ Fashion 

You may have never thought about the possibility, but you could just run in to me in the ladies’ section of a clothing store. I’m not one to try on new dresses myself, but I do like to enjoy just exploring the store as a sort of inspiration. There is always a lot of thought put into colours, shapes, and trends when it comes to clothing, and in the Ladies’ section, this is much more obvious (and pretty) than in Men’s departments. Designers put a lot more of their creativity towards womenswear, I think, so if you want to have a look around somewhere, that is just much nicer. There are years where I don’t really get the fashion of the moment: in the last few years, I feel like everything has been way too beige, too pastel, and just generally a bit too dreary, and if there was some colour it wasn’t a fresh and happy one, in my opinion.

Tulipa Ballerina

I learned this way of looking around from my daughter Pien. One time, we were walking down Fifth Avenue in New York (a decadent sentence if I’ve ever written one. It sounds like we go there every day, but this was just the first time she joined my trip to the USA, so we had to go look at the city). This was almost ten years ago, and when we came past Victoria’s Secret, Pien wanted to go in, that store did not exist in The Netherlands. I did not think I would see anything useful (to me, at least), but I was surprised. Everything in the store was meticulously put together and displayed, and it gave a good impression of whatever was hot at the moment (okay, there was more in there that was hot, probably, but still). So we went in and Pien was treated like a princess by the women working at the store, and they told us that upstairs, they had the last outfits from the VS Angel’s on display. Pien told me she had actually seen that on television a while back (again, this was almost ten years ago, I don’t think that show still airs on TV?). The outfits were displayed as if they were in a museum, and their attention to detail when it comes to colour, shape, and use of material is interesting to anyone who does anything that has to do with aesthetics and looks, even middle aged men in flowerbulbs.

Arjuna

I should follow this up with another story: Some five years later I was there again with five Amaryllis growers from the Dutch Westland. They were selling bulbs to our friends at White Flower Farm. For them, the sale of Amaryllises is so important that they had invited their main Amaryllis suppliers to come over and see their Amaryllis trials. That way, they could learn from their feedback and see how they would treat the Amaryllises. And if you are in the USA as a Dutch ‘Westlander’, you absolutely must have a look at ‘The Big Apple’. When we walked past Victoria’s Secret, they were all reluctant to go in, not really trusting me that this was a good idea. But I got them to enter, and they still had an exhibition going on on the upper floors, where they showed outfits and expensive pieces. We got to talking with a saleslady who was asking us what we were even doing there (she suddenly saw five grown men looking vaguely uneasy in her shop) and she was very interested in the Flower bulb business, so that was nice. She could believe that the way VS was designing their products was interesting and it was just a funny look to see those guys trying to ‘act normal’ in a VS shop.

Tulip Mixture Glow Motion

So long story short, it is because of my daughter Pien that you might run into me in various different stores, as I have noticed that window shopping is a great way to come up with new colour combinations and to generally see what’s in. Over the past couple of years, I’ve seen a lot of orange when it comes to clothing. It seems to be more apparent in the UK and the USA than it is in The Netherlands, but I’m not too surprised about that: our royal family’s last name is “Of Orange,” so orange reminds Dutch people of dressing up for national holidays and the national football team’s kit. But orange is a fantastic colour when it comes to flowers, so hopefully we can try to incorporate those fashionable colours in new mixes and varieties.

Tulipa Chongming Love

Vlad and I have made Tulip mixes with orange notes in it, and I hope they can be the ‘hi’ mixtures of next year. I think that it’s a good idea to look into adding some orange to your garden, so you can be right in line with the new fashion developments.

Amaryllis Grand Diva

Then, it’s also the right time to direct your attention to Amaryllises. They are available again, and there are 79 varieties in the Fluwel web shop, so there must be something to your taste, too. My personal favourite is Grand Diva, one of the most imposing Red Amaryllises around. To me it feels very much like it belongs to Christmastime, quite like the poinsettia does. So I think I am going to leave you with that for Amaryllis recommendations.

Kind regards,

Carlos van der Veek

Narcissus pumilus

One last thing (so you don’t tell me “you should have told me!”): if you are a Daffodil enthusiast, the Daffodils Jubilee and Pumilus are having their last season in our web shop. Next year, they won’t be available anymore. As they are varieties of our own nursery, I don’t think you will be able to find them anywhere else. We have offered them for quite a few years, but the sales of these specific varieties have been declining. This is probably because they are very good at coming back year after year: people don’t need to buy them anymore. So for us, it’s time to make some space for new varieties. If you want either one of these specific Daffodils, be sure to order them now.

Narcissus Jumblie