Hello all,
We’re still wet and waterlogged, but our attention is for now turning to our most stunning first crop of 2024 - tulips. Forget the garish bright red and yellow imported supermarket tulips we're accustomed to - these are subtle and delicate, in pastel shades, with playful and intricate shapes and textures.
Back in November we bought thousands of bulbs from an amazing specialist tulip bulb farm in the Netherlands, which arrived on a lorry - an exciting day! Many hours of planting ensued and - fast forward to now - after months of patiently waiting and watering, we've been rewarded with little shoots coming out of the bare earth and the first crops of flowers are making their way out of the farm gates. With the crops looking healthy and the first flowers looking absolutely stunning, we feel confident that this will be their most spectacular year yet.
The relationship with tulips and Holland is well known, with a fascinating history involving this much-prized crop (this Wikipedia article literally titled 'Tulip Mania' is worth a read, but essentially, at its peak, 10,000 guilders were offered to buy a single tulip - roughly the cost of a mansion at the time.
Our tulips are significantly more affordable but will hopefully inspire a similar seasonal frenzy! The colours we’ve chosen reflect the coming of spring; of blossom, pastels, and creams.
We're picking them when they’re still in bud, with the tiniest hint of colour on their outer petals. These pretty green buds travel wonderfully and open into beautiful blooms, many of them with a double layer of blousy petals around a single stamen. They have a long vase life, opening gradually and with the stems continuing to grow when in water - these girls really put on quite a show far beyond what the little tulip emoji 🌷 can convey!
What's really special is that ours are available super early, thanks to being protected in our indoor growing space. You'll find that most tulips this time of year are imported, while ours are proudly local as well as organically grown.
We've carefully planned our tulip season with succession planting and outdoor as well as indoor growing - so we'll have several flushes through the relatively short season (only around till May, so use 'em or lose 'em).
All said, these are a beautiful but not a hugely profitable crop due to the level of care needed, but they do provide some important income for us during the hungry gap months of spring, where there's little in the ground to be harvested, and to bring some much-needed colour and beauty to the farm during these wet and grey days.
You’ll find our early season range in the Farm Shop now, including the Saigon Double, North Cap, Columbus, First Class and Icoon, with White Liberstar coming soon - a beautiful and rare fluted single tulip with ruffled edges and square head.
We’ve also just welcomed a new line of coloured glass vases into the Farm Shop -perfect timing to take home with your tulips.
See you soon!
