Anyone who was looking forward to a tour of the tulip fields tonight or tomorrow evening will be disappointed. The annual Tulip Splendor at Night event, in which various tulip fields in Drenthe are attractively illuminated, has been cancelled.
The event is organized every year by the participating bulb growers. A pre-marked route takes you past the most beautiful spots, where the tulips are shown at their most beautiful side. This year it would start from Hijken.
“There has been a lot of rain, and as a result there are few opportunities for the growers to head the tulips. That is why they had to take their chance during the dry moments, which means that too many tulips have now been headed to provide a beautiful appearance. during Tulip Splendor at Night,” says Richelle Schenkel of the organization.
“It is not always possible to predict one hundred percent when the tulips will bloom. Actually, this is around April 30 every year. This year they were earlier. Until yesterday we still had the hope that the route would still be beautiful enough to be illuminated, until One of the growers called last night to say that quite a lot of heading had been done, even on the plots that were the most beautiful plots for the route.”
There is a lot of rain and therefore there are few opportunities to head. If you wait too long, the tulips will become heavy and droop when wet, making it impossible for the machine to pick them up. “The only alternative is to head them by hand. And that is so labor intensive, we want to avoid that at all times,” says Schenkel.
When tulips are headed, the flowers are removed from the stem. This is done because the tulip flower draws energy from the bulb. To allow the bulb to grow, the flower is topped. These tulips are not grown to sell the flowers, but to supply beautiful large bulbs. Heading the flowers also prevents unwanted cross-pollination.
The flower on the tulip is initially necessary, the grower can see from the tulips in bloom whether there are the wrong varieties or whether the flowers have been affected by fungi or viruses.
Would you like to enjoy some tulip splendor at night? Then view the photos of previous editions below:
