You can also find flowers in other countries, say Cheryl Burton (71) and Shannon O’Brien (49), two ladies from the south-east of England. “But no spring flowers, such as tulips.” They didn’t hesitate for a second where they wanted to go today: „Especially at Easter!” Shannon is coming here for the “fourth or fifth” time, she says. No, that’s not boring. “I love flowers. So pretty!”
Her friend is here for the first time. Cheryl talks about her late husband, “an avid gardener.” “It was always his wish to go here together.” Unfortunately, he couldn’t live to see it. “So now I am here. I want to buy beautiful tulips here and plant them in the garden at home, as a lasting memory of him.”
The Keukenhof is immensely popular with foreign tourists, while many Dutch people have never been there. At Easter there are long traffic jams on the way to the park, with predominantly German and Belgian license plates. The municipality of Lisse even made agreements with Google Maps to adjust the navigation as soon as too many people drive to the Keukenhof at the same time. As the park fills up at a rapid pace after opening (at 8 a.m.), you will mainly hear German, English and Japanese on the walking paths. Ask tourists the reason for their visit and the answer is almost always: “your tulips”.
The municipality of Lisse even made agreements with Google Maps to adjust the navigation as soon as too many people drive to the Keukenhof at the same time.
There is a long line in front of the mill where groups of tourists can take photos of the bulb fields just outside the park. Furthermore, a lot of selfies are taken. Wherever you go in this ‘most beautiful spring garden in the world’as the park itself calls it, everywhere you see people either taking selfies in front of a red, purple, blue or mixed flower bed, or they are patiently photographed by their partner, with the person portrayed – usually a woman – holding her face in Instagrammable poses.
Extensive use of pesticides
In the Netherlands itself, the Keukenhof also attracts attention in a completely different way. Environmental groups point out that many pesticides are used on those beautifully colored bulb fields. In recent years they regularly took action at the Keukenhofas action group Pesticide Action Network Netherlands did two years ago at the park’s 75th anniversary. According to the action group, biodiversity in the Netherlands has “collapsed” over the past 75 years, partly due to the use of pesticides in bulb cultivation. The action group called on Keukenhof to only plant organic flower bulbs.
Tourists at the Keukenhof.
Photo Olivier Middendorp
Keukenhof itself writes on its website that it makes “sustainable choices where possible”; For example, two parties, Biobol and Natural Bulbs, now supply organic flower bulbs to the park. Keukenhof wants to “help develop and help the sector move forward” and has made a few plots available to showcase Dutch organic flower bulb cultivation.
Yet it is not easy to find those organic flowers locally. None of the (usually non-Dutch speaking) staff NRC asks about it, has some idea. The map shows everything, but not the organic fields.
Doesn’t the song thrush sing a little more exuberantly here, or is that our perception?
Finally, the eye suddenly falls on the sign ‘Biobol’, in a somewhat messy and therefore more natural-looking part of the park. Here, no straight rows in a bed finished with round corners, but something you could actually call a mini piece of nature. Doesn’t the song thrush sing a little more exuberantly here, or is that our perception? In the adjacent field of organic bulb supplier Natural Bulbs, the flowers also seem to have appeared almost by themselves, instead of being laid out with a measuring tape in hand.
The ‘perfect’ picture
Yet tourists seem to come mainly for the other flowers. In numerous places in the park you will find posing spots for the ‘perfect’ picture, such as an anchored boat where you can sit for a few seconds right in front of a large box of red tulips. You can also sit on a climbing frame above a pool of water where blossom branches hang, or ‘push’ a wheelbarrow full of tulips. The queue for the mill has already tripled an hour after opening, and the real boom is yet to come.
Tulips in the hall ‘Willem Alexander’.
Photo: Olivier Middendorp
All in all, you could call the annual crowds (with a maximum of 45,000 visitors always sold out on Easter) the success of the impressive PR machine that the Keukenhof is. Visitors from all over the world come to what is essentially a glorified garden centre. This impression is reinforced by the centrally located ‘Willem-Alexander hall’, in which dozens of flower beds are neatly arranged, with species names such as ‘Golden Apeldoorn’, ‘Love Valley’ or ‘Nachtwacht’.
A young couple decides to join the queue in front of the mill. Tigran (26) and Olag (25) were born in Russia but have lived in the United Kingdom for years. In any case, during this long weekend in Amsterdam (“We also saw the Van Gogh Museum and the canals”) they also wanted to go here. “Of course, this is the most popular place to visit.” They also praise the beauty of tulips and their many forms. For that you really have to go to Holland, they knew. They are a bit jealous. “The scale here is really impressive.”
