Red, White and Tulips

This time last year, I was so sick with allergies. I had never been so sick, literally. I went to the world-famous Keukenhof Gardens, and let’s just say it was a low point. So, despite tulips being my favorite flower and living where tulips are everywhere, I didn’t make it out to any of the fields. This year has been different, thanks to the miracles of modern allergy medications. Yesterday, I went to my first official tulip field at FAM Flower Farm, which was everything I had expected. The weather was as expected, too. When we left the house it was sunny and cold, 15 minutes later when we arrived at the farm it was raining. About 10 minutes later, the sun was out. The nice thing was we were left with water droplets on the petals, which made for some great photographs.

Last year, I mentioned that while tulips are plentiful here, they are not the product. It is the bulbs that people are growing. And FAM Flower Farm is no exception.

Here is what you will see in the fields. The farmers deadhead the tulips so they stop using energy for the flowers and energy is returned to the bulb.

With that, each year, the farmers also rotate their fields. So where there were beautiful fields one year, you are unlikely to find them next year.

This year, I also decided to finally learn about photography. My daughter has been taking photography in school for two years. She has a film SLR and a digital one, so I have the equipment. And while she thinks I might be crazy, she lets me borrow it for my adventures.

The tulips bloomed early this year, and hail damaged many fields this week, so the peak blooming days may be behind us. But I will be out chasing flowers again in the next few days.