Cow smell with a hint of tulip

Well, let's start off a bit lightheartedly, because I have no idea what to write about this week.

Bishop of Leicester

Dahlias of course, I have to do my best to sell you the last Dahlias , so; here it is. To be honest, you have surprised me again this year with your enthusiasm for the Dahlia . The entire past six months I thought that the purchased stock of Dahlias would be far too large. We had been carried away a bit by the jubilant mood that the lockdowns radiated on the floriculture sector. It was just the way it was, because of not being able to go anywhere and being housebound, people started to make it cozy at home and, for many, finally, people started working in the garden. Wonderful times for flower and bulb cultivation and also for Fluwel of course. Wonderful is perhaps not quite the right word, we would rather never have seen that whole virus, but if it happens to us anyway... Golden times for floriculture, sales shot up, bulbs were in short supply. In this jubilant mood we had to order the dahlias from the growers last year that we could send to you this spring. And what do you think; exactly, it always goes differently than you think. The sky was full of planes again, there was noise from the theaters again and there were too few bites in the many restaurants. Life became fun again, it became cozy again, people enjoyed themselves again. We will never sell all those Dahlias again, people (fortunately) spend their money on other things again.

And, what do you think; exactly, it always goes differently than you think. You buy almost the entire Dahlia stock from us again. Sweet of you, thank you very much. Wait, this is not going well either, I can't do it either. Now you are of course thinking, sjips too late the Dahlias are gone. No, more than half are sold out, and for the positive people among us (I am one of them), more than half are still available. And now I am going to tell you a big secret: all those people who have already ordered their Dahlias have also been doing quite a bit of poop. There are still a number of Dahlias in the Fluwel web shop that I am extremely surprised are still there. Really beautiful and really good, they should have been gone a long time ago, feel free to take a look, there are really still a few very good ones among them that deserve a place in a beautiful garden like yours.

Caribbean Fantasy

But okay, because I really don't know what to write about, I'm going to tell you what I've been messing around with this week. Moses Pietjes, that's fun, while writing this sentence, various events are running through my head that could each fill a newsletter. And yes, all last week. Let's start with yesterday (this is also where the title of the news blog comes from 'cow smell with a touch of Tulip ').


“I’ll send you a Pinnetje, I’m in Flevo myself, unfortunately I can’t come with you, but I’ll send you a pinnetje where our Tulips are” said Rosanna Pater (you know, the Rosanna from a month or so ago at that Tulip Exhibition in Venhuizen). A Pinnetje??? I thought, what the hell is that. Never heard of it, but I didn’t want to sound too stupid (old) so I said; fine, thank you, I’ll manage. I can always ask Karel if I can’t figure it out I thought. Ping; appie; link; click; maps; hey, that’s where I need to go, I didn’t understand a thing. ‘At the end of the street on the left’, the phone suddenly starts crackling at me. I really had to laugh, what a world. After obediently following the instructions on my phone for about 45 minutes, I found myself standing in the middle of nothingness somewhere on the plain near Spierdijk in West Friesland, face to face with these ladies who were enjoying an enormous meadow with the most beautiful tulips you can imagine.

Trees of green
Red Tulips too.
See them bloom
For me and for you
…What a wonderful world.

'That was an hour with a golden edge Rosanna' I texted her later, what beautiful tulips you have. Look at that, enjoyed it so Rosanna texted back with a thumbs up. Seen any more beautiful things? I sent her these photos with the question whether we could include them in the Fluwel assortment as soon as there was sufficient supply:

Coastline

Pink Mist

Seedling No. 109

Taiwan

Montreal

Who knows, they may soon become available and you may be able to plant them in your garden one day.
And then the day before yesterday, yes, the day before yesterday nothing really happened the whole day. Following up on daffodils . Following up? I hear you thinking, what is that, not following up… No, following up is walking past to check whether they are all healthy and whether there are any errors in them. Errors are bulbs of a different kind that do not belong there, bulbs that have gone astray.

A mistake…

Following up is also such a wonderful job, all by yourself in the middle of the bulb fields under the blue skies, strolling through the Daffodils , nothing more beautiful than that. When you get home with foliage, phone; 'have you eaten yet?' Eric on the line; 'will you look at the Daffodils later?' Of course. And yes yes, here it comes, Eric's winged saying; "eat first". Fish, Chinese or Pizza? Fish! I'll pick you up in a minute. And after a delicious fish at Moritz in Petten, quickly look at the Daffodils until it is almost dark. We're going, get in, I'll take you home. Hey stop here, you have to see this. The Tulip seedlings of Alwin and Harry van der Salm. On the brakes, back into the field and look at seedlings, hundreds of them.

Hey, who do we see there, Alwin, and back into the seedlings. Alwin wanted to know which ones we liked best. We were almost looking at the tulips with the light of our phone, but it was close. Almost dark, freezing cold, dripping on your nose, in short, another beautiful day.

But I have to stop, I'm going to do something again, otherwise I won't have anything to write about next week.

Kind regards,
Carlos van der Veek

For more beautiful pictures go to Facebook and Instagram , where my colleagues post the most beautiful pictures