The latest women's fashion

Yes, it could happen that you bump into me in the women's department of a large department store or another leading fashion store. Now you certainly won't see me coming out of the fitting rooms in some flowery dress: no, I sometimes like to walk around there just to look at all the colours. Trying to get a feel for what the fashion designers think the trend is going to be. Sometimes I can't make any sense of it at all, no starting points to translate the latest fashion vision into beautiful Tulip combinations or mixtures. Especially in recent years I found it not very appealing, too pastel but then in the dark corner of the colour spectrum. If there was something more colourful hanging in there, it was just a little too mouse-coloured, not quite fresh and not quite cheerful.

Tulipa Ballerina

By the way, I learned this way of looking from my daughter Pien. We were walking on 5th Avenue in New York once. Haha, how wonderfully decadent this sounds, as if we go there regularly. Well no, Pien was with us for the first time to visit our American customers who live just above New York and what do you do then… exactly. Look at the city. But when we walked past Victoria's Secret Pien said: I have to go in here dad. Oh man, no man! Yes, hop in and have a look, have a good look. Well, I thought: this is where the fashion of the future is made. The colours you see here will be 'hot' in a few years. (Okay, I did find more hot than just the colours). Okay, we went in, with Pien who was immediately welcomed like a princess. The latest creations of the 'Angels' are hanging above. Oh wow said Pien, I saw that on TV (not anymore, but then again that was almost ten years ago), come upstairs with me dad. It was on the 7th floor I think, and unbelievable how beautiful it was. The harmony of shapes and colors, unbelievable. We hung around there for a good hour, fantastic.

Arjuna

A nice detail is that I was there again a year later with five Westland Amaryllis growers, where we buy our bulbs for our customer White Flower Farm. For this customer, the Amaryllis sale is so important that they invited the largest suppliers of their Amaryllis bulbs to look at their Amaryllis trial greenhouse, and to learn from each other. And yes, if you are there as a Westlander, you naturally take a peek in The Big Apple. When we walked past Victoria's Secret I said 'Hey guys, just come in!' Oh man, no man! Yes, come on in and take a look, take a good look. This is where the fashion of the future is made. The colours you see here will be 'hot' in a few years. (You can see it coming: I think they thought more was hot than just the colours) Leave everything alone and go to the seventh floor, it's beautiful there. We went in, up the stairs, and we hadn't even reached the third floor when we were stopped. What are you doing here? I understood, about five of those chunky guys with calloused hands as big as coal shovels and shoes that look far removed from the type of brothel creep, it makes sense that they would ask. We are flower growers and we think it's so beautiful what you all do with colours. We would really like to see the Angels' outfit in real life. We'll have a nice chat straight away, what kind of flowers, and of course you can come and have a look. Enjoy again, it's wonderful to browse through all that beauty with those bulb farmers at Victoria.

Tulip mixture Glow Motion

But it is because of Pien that you can just run into me in such establishments. And in the last year I have discovered the following, if you don't tell anyone, I would like to lift a corner of the veil. Just look around me to see if no one is peeping, no we are safe... Orange. Yes, yes, that is scary but it is really true. No excessive 'the Dutch national team plays orange' no subtle snippets of orange. A lot of new fashion shows a trace of orange in all kinds of different shades. Here and there a tuft of fresh bright orange. After looking at it for a while I started to see it. It is beautiful, in a fitting way it is very lively. It made me happy.

Tulipa Chongming Love

I am going to make a few beautiful tulip mixtures with Vlad and Pien, in which we will incorporate a pinch of orange, that could easily become a 'hip' mixture next year. And, if you want to be hip next spring and want to be part of it, incorporate a bit of orange in your garden.

Amaryllis Grand Diva

I would also like to take this opportunity to remind you once again that our Amaryllises are available again. No less than 79 different Amaryllises can be found in the Fluwel webshop. My favourite? Grand Diva. By far the most impressive red Amaryllis. For me, the red Amaryllis is just as much a part of Christmas as the Poinsettia or Christmas Star. Highly recommended, but please leave a few for me.

Kind regards,

Carlos van der Veek

Narcissus pumilus

Oh yes, another case of 'I should have said that'. It is a message for the Daffodil lovers. We are offering the Daffodils Jumblie and Pumilus for the last time this autumn, next year they will no longer be in the Fluwel webshop. Both are Daffodils from our own nursery and I doubt whether they will be available elsewhere. We have grown them with great pleasure for many years, but sales are slowly declining, probably because they naturalize too well, and room has to be made for newcomers. If you want to include these two Daffodils in your collection, you still have the opportunity.

Narcissus Jumblie