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Tiptoe through the tulips


rachelle_m.

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Hi everyone,

 

Today is the very first day of snow we've had all winter, which naturally has me

thinking about the spring. Although I'm currently contemplating various

possibilities, the Netherlands is near the top of my list and I would really

like to visit during the tulip season. I know that a lot depends on weather as

to when the tulips will be in flower, but is there a general time frame that I

can look at to plan around? Have tulips been flowering earlier in recent years

than in the past? Are there any websites out there that keep track of the

flowering status of the tulips? Are there any recommendations for specific

areas that would be great to photograph?

 

And, although I'm most interested in tulips, I am a nature/flower photographer

at heart, so any other recommendations of places to visit and photograph for

spring and summer flowers would be appreciated. Guidebooks rarely comment on

this sort of thing, and photos on the internet rarely provide that kind of

information.

 

Cheers.

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Glacier National Park is spectacular for wildflowers (in carpets!) in early July. There is an annual festival for wildflowers in Waterton (on the Canadian side) which features guided walks and even photography workshops. www.watertonwildflowers.com

 

Staying in Canada, Victoria gets spring much earlier than Toronto, and Butchart Gardens has wonderful displays of spring flowers. www.butchartgardens.com

 

If you are looking at Europe, consider going to Mainau on Lake Constance (Bodensee). I was there one year at the beginning of April and their displays of spring bulbs were incredible. http://www.mainau.de/htdocs/en/start.htm

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The time is late April /early May and the location is between Haarlem and Leiden , centred around the small town of Lisse. There are more northwest of Amsterdam in an area called Beemster - between Purmerend and Alkmaar, where there's also a number of windmills.

 

I don't know what your mental picture is of tulip growing, but let me say a few things. Commercial tulip growing is large scale farming in flat fields. Sometimes you get fields of all one colour. Sometimes the field is of several colours in even strips. Rarely do you get mixed colours such as you do with wildflowers. Its an intensive agricultural pursuit in a quite heavily populated area, and in no way a wilderness experience. Interestingly many of the flower fields are there to propogate bulbs rather than for cut flowers, so its not unusual to see, just when a field is looking at its brightest, a guy in a tractor cutting all the heads off. You can see the tulips in a different setting in gardens, of which the Keukenhof near Lisse is the biggest and best-known. Be aware though that it is prime coach tour territory so don't expect to be alone except very early in the day.

 

You should look at the Photo.net portfolio of Jaap Hart, who portrays the tulip fields as well as anyone although I think you'll find that some of the more romantic touches are given a helping hand in photoshop and I would not travel to Holland in the belief that photographs like that are going to come your way easily.

 

If you want a more natural, wildflower type experience then there are lots of areas to choose from and indeed from April to July you could pretty much travel Europe and N America doing little else. I'd suggest you might want to take a look at the "Crete" area of southern Tuscany in mid May; in the hills of Andalucia between Malaga and Granada; in the high basins of the San Juans in SW Colorado around July; and around Mount Rainier near Seattle, above areas like Paradise a few weeks after snowmelt.<div>00JddG-34568684.jpg.0cee3feed9c5b33f9dd13426099b2944.jpg</div>

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David said it all, but in addition I should perhaps point out that Keukenhof is not a garden or a park in the normal meaning of the espression. What happen is, they rent out ground space (a few square meters each) to many professional growers of flowers (particularly but not exclusively tulips) and other cut plants, and they will then use the blossoming season in April/May to present their new "creations" and hybdris and sell them (to a limited small scale to individuals, but more significantly on an exclusive basis to large-scale retailers). This means that while visiting the place at the peak two-week period literally involves a lot of elbow work, on the other hand it would allow you to see flowers and other decorative plants you never imagined could exist, and you probably will never see again in your whole life.
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Thanks for all the answers!

 

First, a note about my name -- I'm no longer in Toronto but living in France which makes a short trip to the Netherlands a feasible option (although I'll keep Louise's advice in mind the next I go home for a visit -- thanks Louise!). Actually, the reason all of this came to mind is my disappointing experience in Ottawa last year (got there when the tulips were past their peak). Ottawa has the largest tulip festival in the world (over 3 million tulips -- www.tulipfestival.ca), and I was wondering if there was something similar in Holland or if really was just an agricultural pursuit.

 

I have looked at Jaap Hart's portfolio which is quite inspiring, although I admit I don't like the obviously photoshopped images. As a travel photographer, I try to capture scenes as they are, not what I want them to be. Which may mean that the Netherlands may not offer all that I would hope. Thanks David for your constructive response. I am interested in all forms of nature photography -- both manmade and wild. As a teacher I have quite a few holidays which I would like to take advantage of, but it's just finding the right place at the right time to make the most of these opportunities.

 

Anyway, thanks everyone for your responses -- you've given me something to think about.

 

Cheers.

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