We discovered that the best way to see the tulip fields was to rent bikes and peddle through them. We could stop whenever we wanted to do so and take pictures. It is just amazing to cycle around a corner and see yet another field of different colored tulips!
Topping the Tulips
During our second visit to the tulip fields, we saw some machines in the field cutting off the beautiful tulip blossoms -- very sad and a bit weird to see. Later we learned that a 'topping machine' mows the tulips and thereby removes only the flowers from the stem. This is known as 'topping the tulip's or 'heading the tulips'. Topping ensures that the tulip puts no energy in the bloom. After topping the energy goes into the growing of the bulbs. The headed flowers are considered waste (can you believe this?) and the bulbs, which are still in the ground, are harvested in July and then cleaned, peeled and sold.
Fields of Tulips
We hope you enjoy these photos as much as we enjoyed taking them. There are so many colors and types of tulips! What a great honor it was to see them up close.
This featured blog entry was written by Laffer01 from the blog Portugal Spain Budapest Netherlands.
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