Drowned and suffocated: flower bulbs stand in soaking wet soil

Bulb farmer Jan Jong from Andijk has been watching the development of his tulips with concern recently. The damage to his bulb plots is now quite visible. Yet the real damage remains to be seen when they start harvesting. There are already a number of signs that indicate a bad harvest. “Tulips are not growing because they are drowned and suffocated,” says Jong.

The damage that the bulb farmer sees slowly appearing on his tulips is not exceptional. After a tour it turns out that more farmers are experiencing the same problems.

Limited shelf life

Tulip bulbs should be planted in the ground in the autumn. Bulbs, unlike seeds, have a limited shelf life. Due to an exceptional amount of rain in the autumn of 2023, it took bulb farmers a very long time before they could finally start growing.

Jong calls it a special situation. “Normally you always have some damage, but this was a bizarre autumn.” Jong barely remembers the last time it rained so hard, he thinks about decades ago.

At bulb grower Niels Kreuk, also from Andijk, the damage is not yet as visible as at his colleague. “I can only see that at the end of April, when they start growing. Then I can see exactly which tulips have not been headed.” But even headed tulips are not always a guarantee for a successful flower. “It may become a flower, but the quality may not be the same.”

Bulb farmer Maarten Vijn from Wieringermeer explains that those headed tulips with a short lifespan are called ’emergency flowering’. “That is a bad sign, because the flower will not continue to grow.”

Vijn is also starting to notice the irregularities in his plots. He will examine the damage in one to two weeks. “In this day and age you shouldn’t watch too often, because then you get very nervous,” he says.

For bulb farmer Peter de Wit from Anna Paulowna, the damage is not too bad, but he sees that many colleagues around him are less fortunate. “They avoid their plots now because they don’t want their mood to be spoiled,” he says.

Evil has already been done

Bulb grower Kreuk is an optimist by nature, but he tries to remain realistic. “Normally you think ‘I’ll wait a while before growing’, but that just wasn’t an option last year. There really wasn’t a single period when the soil was dry enough.”

Vijn is hopeful that he has been awarded, but he also fears that it will soon be disappointing. “We’ve all been messing around this past year. It won’t be easy. That will certainly have an effect on the yield for many.”

Still, Vijn has a positive attitude: if it is a nice spring, hopefully his plots will turn out well. “The damage has already been done, I can only really see the damage later,” he says.