The famous patchwork of colorful fields.

Many tourists are surprised these days when they see the tulip fields in the Bulb region suddenly being crushed by machines.
 
The famous patchwork of colorful fields is rapidly changing to simple green fields .The flowers are 'headed', but why do the growers do that?
To understand this process you have to remember that the flower fields in Holland are mostly for the growing of flower bulbs and not for the flower.
 
A small bulb is planted in November and it will come up in spring. At that moment it gives all its energy to the flower.
At some point the flower is fully grown. For the many tourists who come to our region especially for the fields, that is wonderful. 
But for the growers, that is actually the moment to remove the flowers, to 'head' them.
Once the flower has been removed, the energy, the nutrition, no longer goes to the flower, but down to the bulb. 
And a new bulb will start to grow under the ground, which can be harvest in June and July. 
The bulbs are then dried, peeled and washed before they travel all over the world, most of them go to China and America since they are the biggest bulb buyers.
 
The people in the region know this process and see it happen every year. But the tourist don't understand it and think it's a shame to cut the beautiful flowers that are in full bloom! 
We totally get that and fortunately Thea has many different tulips in her collection, of which not one has to be cut off😉.
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