birdienl | A very Dutch sight

Most of you probably know The Netherlands is the world's largest producer of tulips. Here are a few pictures I took this weekend of a tulip field nearby. They're not at their best anymore, it's been very dry and windy. But it gives you an idea of what we can enjoy here in this part of the year.

These tulips are not grown for sale of the flowers (they are grown in greenhouses), but for propagation of the bulbs. The small bulbs are planted in the autumn. While the tulip is growing, it will use the planted bulb for food and grow several new bulbs. The largest of these are sold to greenhouses for flower production of sold as garden bulbs. The smaller bulbs are planted again the next year.

These tulips will probably be 'beheaded' (don't know if that is the right word, but you probably get what I mean) so the plant will put all it's energy into making new bulbs in stead of in the dying flower. This is sometimes done with a specialised machine, but is also a popular, though backbreaking job for rural teenagers.

Finally, when looking for a nice tagline for this post, I came across the following poem by Amy Lowell and I thought you might like to read it fully:

Guarded within the old red wall's embrace,
Marshalled like soldiers in gay company,
The tulips stand arrayed. Here infantry
Wheels out into the sunlight. What bold grace
Sets off their tunics, white with crimson lace!
Here are platoons of gold-frocked cavalry,
With scarlet sabres tossing in the eye
Of purple batteries, every gun in place.
Forward they come, with flaunting colours spread,
With torches burning, stepping out in time
To some quick, unheard march. Our ears are dead,
We cannot catch the tune. In pantomime
Parades that army. With our utmost powers
We hear the wind stream through a bed of flowers.