Every year the tulip season in Holland officially starts with the National Tulip Day in Amsterdam. It is celebrated on Dam Square in Amsterdam, where Dutch tulip growers build a very special tulip garden. Everyone is invited to come and pick some flowers!

In 2019 the National Tulip Day (Nationale Tulpendag) was celebrated on 19 January. And we were there.

Amsterdam’s Dam Square was filled with approximately 200.000 tulips. Every visitor could pick up to 15 flowers and it’s totally free. Admission to the tulip picking garden started at 13:00. The garden closes when the flowers are all picked. So you can imagine that many of Amsterdam’s citizens and visitors alike were waiting for their chance. The event was very well organised and the tulips did seem to grow right back as they were picked. Growers were continuously replacing empty crates with new tulips.

fter the official reception we moved on to the Palace on the Dam, in front of where the tulip spectacle was held, and enjoyed a tour of the Amsterdam residence of our current Dutch King Willem Alexander, his wife Princess Maxima and their children.

Unfortunately they were not there to welcome us however to see all the areas filled with lots of fresh flowers everywhere made up for their absence.

We even got to look through the window of the Balcony that every Dutch person knows as this is where our royals appear for special celebrations. I have included some pictures of our royal family on the balcony here.

From here we could see the first of many people entering the tulip display to pick their own free tulips.

When leaving the Royal palace back onto the main square there were lots of people with stunning bouquets of tulips that they just picked. Seeing the smiles on their faces was maybe even the nicest part of the day.

The tulips are a very important flower for the Dutch flower industry with every year over Two Billion tulips produced.

Tulips are bulbs that are planted in the autumn and flower in the spring. Around 9 out of 10 tulip bulbs each year are exported and together comprises roughly 10% of the ‘Netherlands’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

It is possibly not so hard to understand that the Tulip is one of my Favourite flowers each year. We are by now well into the season of Tulips and will have a beautiful selection of tulips in our flower shop and also available from our web shop from 1st of January until the beginning of May.

If you are like me and you cannot get enough of these stunning Dutch tulips why not plan a visit to one of Holland’s best visited attractions and plan a visit to the Keukenhof gardens, the world’s most beautiful spring park. In 2019 the park is open from 21 March to 19 May. Make sure to book a hotel well in advance as in April – mid May Holland is extremely popular among tourist.

7 Million Blooming reasons to visit the Keukenhof, Netherlands.

Now, I enjoy the pleasure of seeing the first spring bulbs emerging through the soil in my garden, but the feat of planting over 7 million bulbs in Keukenhof is one tulip too far.

It is quite astounding when you wander through the entrance to see the shock of magnificent colour before you, row after row of meticulously laid out beds. It’s not surprising that this beautiful garden welcomes 1 million visitors each Spring, from near and far within just an 8-week window.

Visit KEUKENHOF HOLLAND