This is one of the witty statements of one of our Tulip suppliers from the village Grootebroek in West Friesland. I thought of his words quite often When the Corona crisis started. From one day to another the perspectives for the near future changed completely. The flower trads collapsed in March. Awful pictures were shown of millions and millions of unsold flowers milled to compost at the Dutch flower auctions.

Bulb growers are direct or indirect related to the auction. Many Tulip bulb growers produce Tulip flowers during the months of winter to be marketed at the flower auctions. Also, growers of Hyacinths and Daffodils grow many bulbs that are grown in flower, by themselves or by others, to be marketed as cut flower or as pot plant. 

The future did not look very bright for a while, the cooling were still loaded with bulbs waiting to be forced in bloom during the months of April and May.

But again, what we expected to happen did not happen. The Corona crisis changed the lifestyle of all people, everybody was bound to their homes and had to make the best of it. It soon turned out that people started to buy more flowers for in their houses. The flower traders went to the auction again to fulfil the demand. The export of flowers to foreign countries was still very low ut on the other end, there also were no flowers from abroad arriving at the auction. So, after a few weeks there already was a reasonable balance between supply and demand. For sure this year will not be a great year for the flower growers, but it does not turn out as bad as we expected at the start of the Corona crisis.

But the biggest surprise was the sales of dry bulbs for the garden. Because people had to spend their time at home they started to garden. The sales in the Fluwel web shop experienced a huge boost and at the end of April we were facing a big pile of empty trays from the Dahlia’s, Zantedeschia and other summer flowering bulbs.

That pleases me a lot because gardening is very good. It is especially good for Mother Nature; nobody loves green and flowers as much as Mother Nature.

But also, for human being gardening is a very healthy, almost medicinal activity. Nothing as healthy than working with your hands in the soil, it will turn you into a well-grounded person. Just like the electricity in your house needs to be grounded to get rid of a overload of voltage, the human body needs an opportunity to get rid of the tension and that can be done by putting your fingers in the ground… gardening.

I sincerely hope that this increased popularity for gardening isn’t a temporary hype. It would be very nice if it grows into a long-term trend because the there is so much nice to enjoy in the garden.

I warmly invite you to have a look in the Fluwel web shop.

The spring flowering bulbs are available now and there still is a vast assortment to pick from. Of course, you can also order later in the season or in the fall when it is planting time, but please do keep in mind that our assortment will be smaller by then.  Due to the increased demand for bulbs I expect that some varieties will be sold out sooner than normal. And it always are the nice ones that sell first.  

Best regards,

Carlos van der Veek