The bulbs of Tata Steel’s special own orange tulips, called ‘Staalmakers’, were planted today in the five flower boxes in front of the company’s war memorial, so that they are in full bloom during Remembrance Day on May 4. Ed de Vries rolled up his sleeves and dug into the soil this morning to distribute five hundred bulbs over the trays.
“The ‘old’ flowers from the containers were still beautiful, so I moved them a bit to the side,” says De Vries. He says it almost apologetically, because he may find that the purple plants are hanging a bit sadly to the side, while in the center of the containers only compacted soil can be seen.
“We’ve been doing this for a few years now, since the centenary,” he explains. At that celebration in 2018, the IJmuiden steel giant was given the Staalmakers specially bred in Heemskerk as a gift from mayors from the IJmond. Since then, according to De Vries, the tulips have been ‘I thought every year’ to celebrate the commemoration of the dead at the Hoogovens war memorial at the Jan Brasserplantsoen in Velsen-Noord.
500 to Wijk aan Zee, 500 to Velsen-Noord
The memorial commemorates 69 blast furnace employees who died during the Second World War. The white wall with the names on the fourth of May “commemorates all victims who have died in war situations and peacekeeping missions since the Second World War.”
And of course, this monument near the gates of Tata Steel does not belong to flowers in light tones or pastel shades: the tulip has a suitable ‘color of glowing steel’, so the proud Heemskerk grower Jos Beentjes typified his creation in 2018.
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Those special anniversary bulbs from Beentjes will not only be placed here in Velsen-Noord next year, says Tata Steel: “We had even more. 500 pieces were given to a garden team in Wijk aan Zee, and 500 will be added. the war memorial in Velsen-North.”
But the weather has to be a bit co-operative to make that happen, warns De Vries, as he sweeps the earth aside again next to the bins: “We hope it will get colder,” says De Vries. “Otherwise they will come out too early, that would be a shame.”
Tulips at the Tata war memorial – NH Nieuws