Dreams come true

Dear reader,

It has been a while since I, Vlad, wrote a newsletter. I am one of the newer team members of Fluwel, and when I first started my job I introduced myself to you and told you where my passion for flowers and flower bulbs comes from.

You may remember that I moved from Berlin to the Netherlands earlier this year. I was born in Moldova and have seen a lot of Europe, but living in the Netherlands has always been a dream of mine. From a distance, it seemed like a flower bulb lover’s paradise, and the best place to not only see the flowers in question every day, but also to actually work with them. These types of jobs are scarce in other countries, and I wasn’t sure if I would get the chance to turn my hobby into a job or if it should remain a hobby. The flower bulb world is not huge, so finding the right place if you were not born into ‘the flower bulb world’ is also a bit of luck. And I was: I met Carlos at the time he was looking for someone to join the Fluwel team who wanted to focus on the future of the company, how we can spread our love for flower bulbs to even more people and how we can put together a range that really has something for everyone. It couldn't have been a better match for what I'd always wanted to do, and now that I've been doing it for a while, it's great to see that all my expectations have been exceeded. Lady Madonna, my favorite white Narcissus. For the enthusiast: this Narcissus belongs to the cyclamineus group

My first and greatest love within the flower bulbs is the Amaryllis, also known as the Hippeastrum. I have already dedicated many stories to it and could do so for pages, but I am going to talk about my number two: the Narcissus. Of course I find all flower bulbs beautiful, it is always difficult to choose, but I think that all enthusiasts secretly have a species that stands out above the rest. You know that about Carlos too, of course, it is always dangerous to start talking about Narcissus with him, especially if you had something else to do that day!

Perhaps I have taken on some of Carlos’ enthusiasm when it comes to Daffodils, especially now that we have truly settled in the Netherlands and I can go to the office every day instead of working remotely. My husband and I have moved into a house with a beautiful view of the bulb fields with our pets, within cycling distance of Fluwel, it can hardly be more Dutch – it feels like we are living in a postcard. The Netherlands is the fourth country I have lived in, and we hope this is the last time we emigrate. And I am not the only one: another new Fluwel team member, Pauliina, has also just moved to the Netherlands. She came here from Finland with her boyfriend, and like me she is working hard to become Dutch and cycles to the office every day. Fluwel is growing, and now that we have more people, we also have more and more possibilities in what we can offer you: not only in our shop, but also when it comes to flower bulb knowledge and, for example, the World Daffodil Tour last spring. Pauliina packing Scilla madeirensis earlier this week I worked on the same orders, and provided the boxes with the addresses they were going to

Together we finished all the Scilla madeirensis orders, quite a few boxes. We immediately drove to the post office to send them. We are in the office a lot, but we try to help out in the shed when there is time, with these kinds of things, because as a newbie you can really see what you are doing it for: all these flowers are going to someone who will – hopefully – be happy with them! This Narcissus is called 'Sir Winston Churchill,' one of my favorite double Narcissi. This species belongs to the tazetta group. I am a fan of that group as a whole: they smell wonderful and have multiple flowers per stem

Pauliina and I have also challenged each other (and ourselves) to learn Dutch as quickly as possible. Of course, we want to be able to speak Dutch with all of Fluwel’s Dutch customers, and we both want to stay in the Netherlands and really combine Dutch culture with our own, and of course the language is important in that. It seemed easy, or at least doable, to learn Dutch if you already speak German and English, but that is easier said than done. The grammar is really different, and the vocabulary does have a lot of loan words, but Dutch has so many expressions, proverbs, and sayings that words are sometimes used in very special–at least for us–ways. But we do our best, and Pauliina and I also share the rare opinion that we think Dutch is a beautiful language: my own favorite is how you can make all kinds of words sweet by adding -je to them: bloempje, koffietje, katje. Very nice. A real Queen of Queens: the Narcissus 'Queen of the North' is one of my favorite older Narcissus. She was registered in 1908, and certainly in the sun she has a beautiful fresh yellow color and glistening white in the leaves. A small miracle that also does well in almost all gardens. This species can take a beating

We are also busy preparing all the orders of the spring bloomers. They are neatly packed to wait nicely until the Big Shipping Day October 4th : I think I can talk endlessly about our week at Fluwel. We actually did the 'normal' work in the barn, which Carlos' children have been doing all their lives in the summer, but for me it is like the title of the newsletter: a dream come true. It probably sounds crazy to most Dutch people who are so used to flower bulbs as a product and the beautiful fields, but for me this is the job I always wanted, and I am very happy that I have been given the opportunity, just like I hear from Dutch bulb farmers, to turn my hobby into my job. That is not something that is self-evident, and I am very grateful that I was able to make this career switch and am now also part of 'The Flower Bulb World'. This is 'Little Alfred,' one of my favorite miniatures. The flower only grows to 15 centimeters tall, beautiful for the front row in the garden or in a pot. It flowers early, so you can be one of the first to see it. The species is registered by Carlos and is a nice addition to the trumpet group

After the spring bloomers, the next collection we are going to sell is the Amaryllis, or Hippeastrum . The assortment is bigger this year than ever before: we have more than 115 different types, from large to small, double and single, newer types and golden oldies. Whether you are looking for a typical, classic Amaryllis or a slightly special, crazy one: you can find it all. When I look at this Daffodil, Narcissus recurvus, I think of my grandmother. She had thousands of them every spring, often in combination with 'Actaea'. A real childhood memory in which I can almost smell her front garden when I think of her. They were often in bloom during Easter, and when we visited her I could look at the Daffodils for hours

There is no real housekeeping announcement for this week, so I wanted to say something we never really ask: if you have more garden friends who are also enthusiastic about bulbs, tell them about the Fluwel newsletter/blog . Carlos loves to tell people about the world of flower bulbs and likes to take people along in the daily routine of all the people who work in this area, and if you know more people who would actually be curious but don't know us yet, we are happy every time someone tells the next person about us. In addition, you can also give garden friends a Fluwel gift voucher if you ever need a present. We hope that we can spread as many flower bulbs, and knowledge about them, as possible.

I’m going back to my daily tasks. I hope to have another opportunity this winter to talk about Amaryllises–I’m already loving the collection we’ve managed to put together this year. After all, the Amaryllis is to me what the Daffodil is to Carlos, and I never have enough words in a newsletter to write about them! Thanks for reading.

Yours sincerely,

Vlad