TULIPS IN HOLLAND

Taranaki Daily News, 12 July 1929, Page 3

TULIPS IN HOLLAND

OPENING OF THE SEASON A WONDERFUL SIGHT. STRANGE CUSTOMS OF GROWERS. The Hague, May 31. The Dutch tulip fields are slowly but very slowly, nearing perfection. In. sunny, protected spots, double and single blooms are fully out, but the mor© shaded plants or those with a northern exposure simply show green spikes. The fight between the bu/ib growers and tulip is of long standing. Every year, with tiresome regularity, tha growers put down the tulips to flower for Easter. With even greater regularity the bulbs, unknown to the growers, put on one, two, three or up to seven extra greatcoats, according te the weather to be expected in the coming winter, and thus delay bursting their beauty on the world for weeks after Easter. As weather prophets the tulips beat all the meteorological experts. This year they gauged, the situation correctly, prepared for the coldest and. worst winter Holland has known within living memory, and now they are gradually shedding their extra coverings, but in a hesitating way. To provide for all contingencies, th© growers lay down many bulbs besides tulips that are delicate in their nature and retiring in tlieir- ways. There .are more daffodils, hyacinths and nacissi in the tulip fields than tulips, and it must be so because of the colour scheme. These colour schemes, the pride of the Dutch growers, are not merely accident. They are designed by artists for a fee. The mingling of flowers also gives life to the fields, as only the longstalked tulips, daffodils and narcissi bend and shake their top-teavy heads in the breeze. Dwarf tulips and hyacinths are too stiff.

WHITE AND ORANGE PREVAIL.

The prevailing colours are white and orange, while there are patches of deep scarlet, almost black; of delft and several shades of Wedgewood blue. The palest to the deepest magenta is seen, with all shades of purple. As a rule there is a great carpet of gold, laid beside a carpet of white, with a border of blue, perhaps, but some growers specialise in mixed beds, mingling both species and colours.

The tulip fields may be seen from airplanes or motor cars, but the artist holds that they should be seen from the tram. Leaving the Tague at noon by tram, the visit can be accomplished in six hours at the cost of, roughly, 50 cents. By conducted car it costs just twice that sum.’The electric tram swirls visitors through the woods to Leyden, the old university city, passing some tulip beds, while many tulips and daffodils grow in wild profusion in fields and woods.

At Leyden the “blue” tram should be taken. Dozens of trams, gay with daffodils and hiacinths, but never a tulip, whiz by. They are not going to the tulip fields. Finally the tulip field tram comes along. It announces its arrival by much whistling and the solemn tolling of a hand bell. The dirtiest and most ancient contraption in Holland, it is one of the original steam trams, with an engine such as is sometimes seen in motion pictures showing the first of all trains. Wheezing and panting, it moves gingerly, amid the jeers of the tulip growers, who ask it to pull up for a moment while they sell some flowers to the passengers within. This is strictly forbidden. In other ways plenty of time is provided for bargaining with the tulip men. As the line is single track, the steam tram pulls up to allow others to pass at the frequent junctions, and thia usually in the middle of the fields.

FOREIGN FLAGS OVER DOORS.

At last Hillegom, the very centre of the bulb-growing trade, is reached, and the visitors are turned out of the Haarlem tram, the sights being over. Hero some exporters show the national fia.ga of their best customers. The Stars and Stripes float over many a doorway. There are bulb doctors, who advertise their willingness to treat bulbs with hot water, etc., while all kinds of packing for bulbs and for flowers are recommended by the vendors of boxes and “cornets.” All around the bulb district men on bicycles and women in cars carry large sugar-loaf “cornets,” entirely closed, containing flowers. This is the best possible way of protecting the flowers from the wind and sun and also from the gaze of the curious, for it is an unwritten law that, although hyacinths, narcissi and daffodils can be sold ad lib., tulips should be cut and thrown away by the bulb growers, who are not supposed to sell both flowers and bulbs, or at any rate not of the rarer specimens.

Along the route children sell nosegays hanging from sticks, the flowers with their head hanging downward. They do not deal in tulips, however. If inquired for specially, they may be obtained at about half a cent a bloom for the finest specimens, but they are kept in the dark under carts for flower stands.

The whole district between Leyden and Hillegom lives on tulip growing. Barges bring sand if the soil is not sufficiently light for tulip growing and carry away the discarded blooms to serve as manure. Men tend the fields constantly, cutting every fading flower, leaving nothing but choice specimens on exhibition. When not busy with the fields the growers must attend to the bulbs, which require careful drying, turning and sorting when not underground, and a bulb lasts only three or four years at that.