How do they become?

If you ask someone who works in bulb growing around this time of year, they will immediately know what you mean: the harvest expectation.
Always exciting for the flower bulb grower, how will the bulbs turn out? They have been talking about it for months, they use terms like 'Best Bulb Weather' 'East wind grmblgrmblbrombrom with east wind nothing grows' 'best shower for the bulbs' 'it's too cold' 'it's too wet' and all that whining that is of no use to anyone. In the run-up to the harvest they always turn out good three times and bad three times, no one knows.

I myself don't care much about how the bulbs will turn out, when I hear growers talk about the weather conditions and growth I always say 'if it rains in May... then April is over. Always true.
No, I don't really care how the harvest turns out. The thickest bulbs give the most beautiful flowers and if Mother Nature gives us a year with less thick bulbs, the flowers may be a little smaller but they are certainly just as beautiful. No matter how the harvest turns out, at Fluwel we always go for the thickest bulbs because they are the best.

Allium Ambassador

For a large bulb grower it is of course different, it makes a considerable difference if over the entire area per square meter about 10 bulbs more or less become big enough to sell. But to grumble about it all spring long and often... We have known it for years: If the farmer does not complain and the priest does not ask, the end of our days is approaching.

Narcissussus Breath of Spring

Still, I always enjoy making a round of growers around this time. Just before harvesting time, they usually have time for you and they are also curious about my opinion on the harvest.

As for the harvest expectation, it looks like the Daffodils will be very good. They are still well on the root, the leaves are still leek-green and they have survived the heat of last week well. I have been digging with Karel and the Daffodil bulbs that we pulled out were quite a good size.

Karel is coming to help this summer, so there is a good chance that if you buy flower bulbs in the Fluwel webshop, they were prepared by Karel. Karel is thinking about getting into bulbs too, although he does think that there are a lot of old men in the bulb business. I never really noticed that myself, but he is kind of right. When I was at a party recently, I had to think of his statement. We were standing with a lot of people our age, all bulb growers, when Piet suddenly started talking about hearing aids, how advanced they were these days, he bought them on Marktplaats, half the price and they work just as well. Then there was someone who spontaneously started talking about the growth of his belly, how that came about. I was most shocked by Wim when he started talking about his leaking tap. 'You're not talking about your own tap, are you?' I asked him, shocked. No, luckily it was the tap in his bathroom. What Karel says is all true, luckily I still feel young and I still have a lot of desire to sell a lot of bulbs.

Harvesting tulips

I notice that I sometimes digress a bit, that never happens to me, I have to stick to the subject. The first bulbs are being dug up and the harvest looks good, Narcissus , Crocus , Tulip , Hyacinth , Allium , actually all spring flowering bulbs have benefited from a wonderful spring without any extremes in the weather conditions. The nights were not too cold, the days not too hot and the precipitation came in neat amounts.

It was a year ago last week that more than 100 mm of water fell in an hour and literally all the fields looked like rice fields. Fortunately, none of this was this growing season, it was really bulb weather, a spring to frame, the bulbs are becoming beautiful.