The Royal Treatment

Fluwel Specialty Narcissus Beau Beaute

Nice news blog, but first the housekeeping announcement: the Fluwel Specialty Narcissus can still be ordered until Tuesday 9 July . The trade assortment will of course remain available until autumn as long as stocks last, but the door will be closed for the small varieties from our own nursery. I have started digging and as soon as I process a batch I want to know how many sold bulbs we have to count and the rest goes with the planting material. They can be ordered again next year. Velvet Specialty Narcissus Volcanic Rim

Well, that was the serious note, now to write about 'The Royal Treatment'. It's always nice when someone comes to visit after a while to chat about balls. A nice day at the dam to show you all sorts of things. Madelaine's nursery in Chile

This time it was Madelaine from Chile who suddenly stood in front of us. From Chile? Yes, from Chile. Years ago, the Narcissus introduced us to each other. Madelaine has a nursery of trees (mostly avocado trees that she grows from seed) and other plants a little below Santiago. Because she had been in love with the Narcissus for years, she thought it would be fun to grow and sell Narcissi as well. In Chile, the Narcissus is a truly exotic flower, incomprehensible to us, but there the Narcissus is truly still a rarity. Madelaine typed Narcissus into her computer and the Narcissus in her computer sent her to me. I'll come and see you sometime, Madelaine, I replied. Where you live, Christmas falls in the summer and the Narcissus is not used to that. Of course, it has to go well if we send bulbs to the Southern Hemisphere. And, I wanted to go there anyway to see my friend Arie who works in the Lilies there. Want to come along, Pien? Yes, great! By the way, Pien has never said no when I asked her to go somewhere. Pien in Chile

We figured out how to get the Narcissus used to Easter falling in the fall and hey presto, send the bulbs. We had barely gotten home when Pien went back, learned Spanish, she could stay at Madelaine's house. Jacqueline also went for a week of course, missed Pien, had a peek. In short, Madelaine became a good friend of the Veek family in no time. What do you do when she suddenly comes to the Netherlands? Exactly; The Royal Treatment. Show her as much as possible what suits her and above all combine the pleasant with the useful. After arriving, first a glass of wine and the next morning after business, first take a look at a Tulip nursery in Full Action. Digging up hyacinths

Called friend Rob, already retired but of course no time for us because he was busy with harvesting bulbs. But Gijs is walking in the shed, Rob said, give him a call, and otherwise Teun. When we wanted to get into the car, the Van Haaster harvester just came spluttering past the shed to harvest the hyacinths. Of course we showed that first, then Madelaine immediately knows how a harvester works. Sorting tulips

Off to the Burger family's Company in 't Zand and Malelaine was amazed, a real flower bulb factory, what machines and what action. Here are a few photos of the Tulip's journey through Burger's barn. Jacqueline & Madelaine

On the way home we let the lovely smell of the Freesias that are at the end (for people coming from the other side at the beginning) of the Bosweg flow through our nostrils. 1 Freesia smells nice, a whole bunch nicer, but this; Madeaine will never forget this for the rest of her life. The smell of a hectare or 5 or 6 Freesias goes through marrow and bone, what a pleasure. Zantedeschia Red Symphony

A little further we turn the wheels onto a corner of land with hundreds of thousands of Zantedeschias. No scent but color, not too many yet the first ones just started to bloom. Before you know it, the morning is over so first something to eat in our own restaurant at Land van Fluwel . Luckily, master chef Mirea, who can cook even better than top chef Linda who can do it much better, is in the kitchen. After loosening our belts a notch we can continue. The Weighing Tower in Alkmaar

To bend over

Time to move on to Jacqueline's program, the pleasant; Alkmaar. I could write about this for a long time and a lot, but of course we won't. Okay then, the boat trip through the canals was quite nice. Ducking under the bridges 23 times and actually seeing and hearing quite a lot. The city looks completely different from the water and at the end of the trip you are a seasoned bridge-bumper. But after that... shopping ☹ . Catastrophe. Hands deep in my pockets, corners of my mouth not up, I walked there, strolling behind the girls. Shop after shop. Not entirely true, well, actually it was true, every now and then I enthusiastically said something like 'hey, nice shop' and I stepped inside pretending to be happy because I knew that people would go in. So just pretend you like it. Narcissus Amore Mio

Anyway, Jacqueline and Madelaine loved it all and before we knew it we were having a pizza at Amore Mio in Callantsoog in the evening. Yes, I named the Narcis Amore Mio after my favorite pizzeria. I forgot to mention that we also had coffee in the afternoon in a very nice place. Completely packed with all kinds of old junk and a lovely atmosphere. This was the menu. Just a bowl of 'this is what we have' point to one and I'll get it for you. Way, way too much but hey, it was tasty so it came back up.

The next day we went to Arie. Arie visits her every year when he is in Chile and has become good friends with Madelaine. He wanted to show her a perennial plant company, a tree nursery company and his new hobby; the Agapanthus. Of course, first we had to take a look in Arie's garden, it's a beautiful garden

First to his neighbor, Rotteveel, where countless pots with perennials were made in countless varieties. You know what, I'm going way over my limit again with regard to the number of words, I'll switch to photos with short texts.

Then to Arie's new hobby, the Agapanthus. I am sure I will come back to this later because Arie is doing his best to market his new Agapanthuses via Fluwel. The batches are still too small and he is not finished selecting them yet, but as soon as they are available they will be in the Fluwel webshop. Agapanthus seedlings

From Noordwijkerhout the wheels of the car in the direction of Opheusden and the foot on the gas pedal. A good hour of chugging to the Land van Maas en Waal to visit a tree nursery.

Even the greatest tree starts as a seed or a cutting

And if that seed or cutting gets enough attention and love, it will become more and more beautiful. These are all pots with pots in which rootstocks are grown. The root system of these trees, usually the original wild species, is used to graft a family member with a more beautiful canopy. What a business. I think this photo gives the best impression of how big the Batouwe company is. Every employee has his own pruning shears On the way back, a quick visit to Marieke, Arie's sister. She works for a huge company that grows bedding plants for a number of large garden centre organisations.

On the way home, combine the pleasant with the useful and take a look at De Vlindertuin in Tiel . Just a garden in the city centre, we don't expect too much from it but what a surprise. If you are ever in the area, it is highly recommended. And take a good look at the website, there is so much information and ideas to be found, a gem in the gardening world, both the website and the garden itself. Time to put an end to it, more news next week.

Kind regards,

Carlos van der Veek