The Top Tig Thousand

Do you know what I like? That readers react when I ask something in my news blog. What I don't like at all is that I don't take the time to answer all those sweet reactions. Stupid, huh? I read all that nice stuff with great pleasure and then drag myself back into the daily grind and continue with Dahlia photos and texts, Lily planting instructions, the Amaryllises in my greenhouse or whatever else needs to be done in my head at that moment. Yes, I have a head in which a whole row of chores are patiently and sometimes impatiently waiting to be done.

Patient chores are fun, they don't nag, are often really fun and always get their turn. The impatient chores on the other hand, something needs to be done about them. Always nag and are often not really fun.

Together with Pien I once came up with the idea, I mentioned it before, that we would make waiting our hobby. Best decision ever, enjoyed it very much. It was at a time when Pien spent quite a lot of time in the hospital and that medical specialists, nurses and other support staff sometimes had to wait due to the pressure of emergencies. From the first moment you make waiting your hobby, you no longer look impatiently for a doctor, no more staring at that clock that for some reason can be seen everywhere. Wherever you walk in a hospital you see the hands of a wise-ass-pointing-black-and-white pancake somewhere to tell you that you are almost too late to have to wait a good fifteen minutes, if not half an hour, for your appointment. Or even worse, imagine that you get into a situation where you have to spend the last days of your life in the hospital and the only decoration is the clock and the calendar, that's really counting down. Dahlia Seniors Hope

My intention is to infect my impatient chores in my head with our patient hobby. Create a waiting room in my head without a clock or calendar and where all patient and impatient chores can wait in peace. That is a very long and digressive story to let you know that sometimes I would rather do something else than answer all your sweet reactions on my news blog. Lilium Sweet Susan

Really, me and the girls at the office think it's great that you respond but don't always expect a response. Sorry and thanks. I have to give a response, a while ago I asked you to come up with a name for a perky little Narcissus with a green flower. Received many nice suggestions but it soon turned out that this little rascal already had a name: "Verdant Sparks". Also a nice name by the way, verdant is something like a green oasis in English. An oasis of sparks, beautiful name for such a richly flowering small autumn flowering Narcissus. In 2026 I will offer her in the Fluwel Special Narcissus list, another year to see if she really continues to grow so well. Dahlia Bluetiful

What a load of nonsense, when I wrote the title 'The Top Tigduizend' I actually just wanted to say that I listen to the Top 4000 quite often and how nice it is, that hearing songs from the past can sometimes, not always, take you back to beautiful memories. Did you know that I have that with flowers too? And then of course I'm going to come up with something like a flower top hundred or something. Should I ask...? Yes, I'm going to do it. Would you like to send me an email to info@fluwel.nl with your top three most beautiful flowers . It doesn't always have to be a certain type of course, the Casablanca Lily is good but just Lily is also fine. Can I perhaps come up with a Velvet Flower Bulbs Top Hundred of All Time before the new year? I am curious, if there are many responses I will ask Vlad to build it into the website next year.

On 783 'Vincent' by Don McLean. 'Starry starry night, flaming flowers that brightly blaze' and 'Shadows on the Hills, sketch the trees and Daffodils'. A song about Vincent in which the Narcissus contributes to confirming the beauty of the paintings. Is certainly number 1 in my top three, the Narcissus. Narcissus Starry Night

One of the Narcissus seedlings we grow comes from the American breeder Bill Welch. When I asked daughter Roos in the spring if she knew a suitable name, she came up with this name. Perfect name for this sparkling flowering Narcissus. Next year it will be in between in the Fluwel Special Narcissus list. What else can I tell you, I'm typing away nicely and haven't reached a thousand words yet. I just made soup. Pien once gave me a book: Grandma's Soup. I thought: I'll open it and make the soup from the page I see. What do you think, page 63 Brussels sprout soup. A Brussels sprout goes in there without a problem, nothing wrong with that, but to make soup from it. I did it anyway, we won't let ourselves be known of course. A pinch of curry, a bit of mustard, a dash of whipped cream. Onion, of course a clove of garlic, the hand blender through it and what do you think... it tastes like Brussels sprouts. Oh yes, I wanted to show you that too. An Amaryllis from my greenhouse. This is a Ferrari that I planted about four weeks ago as a healthy-looking bulb. When I planted it, there was nothing to be seen, a beautiful bulb that looked tip-top. And then a quarter of it appears, terrible. I hope our customers don't have that, I immediately think, but of course it could happen to you too. If you have a bulb that is struggling like that, don't doubt yourself, this bulb really wasn't good. If it happens to you, send us a photo and we will send you a new bulb. I know from experience that many people always think 'I must have done something wrong' and don't let them know, but for us it is also nice when we find out that there are problems or that there are species that cause problems. This photo is horrible, but fortunately it is the only Amaryllis of the almost 500 that has really kicked the bucket. I'm going to stop now, I'm not sure if I'll be back next week. We'll see if I feel like it. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas from the entire Fluwel Team .

Kind regards,

Carlos van der Veek