‘Bakkies’ and ‘Blikkies’
This week, I was visiting our Roselily supplier. I learned some new jargon: ‘bakkie,’ for a crate that fits about 100 big bulbs, or a ‘blikkie,’ a container with about 1000 of those crates inside of it. A tiny, tiny difference. If you ever find yourself at a Dutch Roselily supplier, make sure you know the difference between the two.
Roselilies are one of the very few kinds of bulbs that we don’t directly get from our own growers or our own nursery. Growers of Roselilies have decided to work together: They supply all Roselilies to only two traders, and those two traders then have to see how they can best distribute the supply of Roselilies between all interested buyers. The Roselily is a very popular product, which is why this system was called into existence. Growers did not want to get lost in the demand and create an unfair market based on nepotism or simply the early bird catching the worm. So these two Roselily traders entered the picture, and I am all the better for it, because while I may know some people in the flower bulb world, I am not always the earliest bird.
But I got a chance to ask for some of the varieties on my wishlist. Even better: they actually approached me, and Fluwel, to see if we wanted them. I was honored and happy, because of course I wanted more of these unique and interesting bulbs to offer to all of you. I went over as quickly as possible and then learned some new words.
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As you may expect when reading this, most Roselilies had been sold out for a while at this point. Of the 6 varieties I was interested in, only 3 remained, but there were some other, smaller varieties that were still on offer, varieties that aren’t as well-known yet. I know our readers love the more niche flower bulbs, most of you aren’t beginners at gardening, and being able to get an unknown, beautiful flower bulb is something I love to offer to all of you.
The one Roselily I wanted to ask for was Ludwina. That is the one and only variety I might think is more beautiful than Roselily Anouska, and I was lucky, because they actually had this variety! I have been waiting fort his one to come to our web shop for years, she is brand new, and I hope to make some of you just as happy as I am with this news. Besides Ludwina, we have added two other Roselilies to our collection: Roselily Gisela and Roselily Edsilia, both also great options. The new varieties often are, they have just entered the market and have all of the great characteristics the growers are aiming for when creating new varieties.
I am very happy with this year’s Roselily colllection. It is our best ever. If you go for the mixture, you will get 12 bulbs, 2 of every Roselily variety we currently offer: Roselilies Anouska, Edsilia, Gisela, Isabella, Patricia, and Ludwina. They don’t come with name tags, but I promise you there will be two of each, you will see when they bloom which is which. And to repeat myself: the mixture contains my two very favourite varieties, Anouska and Ludwina.
I actually wanted to use this newsletter to tell you that you can order Begonia’s again. Honestly, I really should have started by wishing you all a very happy new year, saying that I hope you had happy Holidays, and that our entire Fluwel team has had a Christmas break and has started the new year fresh and excited, but oh well. I can just say all of that now: Happy new year, a big hug from all of us, we hope you have had an amazing Holiday season this year, and we wish you all the best for 2026!
The thing is, I have spent a lot of time updating our Begonia assortment. Up until now, we have been offering a collection consisting of mostly Ameri-hybrids, Begonias that come from, you guessed it, the United States of America. These Begonia’s are characterised by their bright colours and trustworthy tubers that will give you lots of flowers. A tiny downside to these varieties is the size of the tubers: they are a little bit smaller than the usual Begonias, even though the number of flowers centrainly doesn’t suffer from that. But we have had lots of feedback over the years, and we have extended our collection by adding ‘cascade Begonia’s’ and the non-stop Begonias to our assortment.
Almost all of these Begonias are grown very close yo our warehouse, around Sint Maartensvlotbrug, if you want to walk around on Google Streetview. Every summer, you can drive around and enjoy the blooming Begonia fields. Honestly, sometimes I wonder how the Dahlia is this much more popular than the Begonia. Dahlias really get all of the spotlights, and you all know I love Dahlias, but we really are missing out on the Begonias here. Begonias are great plants for any garden. They are well-behaved when you plant them in a flowerpot, too, and she has the same extremely long flowering period the Dahlia has. Begonias are easy to keep for more than one year: when the plant is finished in the autumn, you take the tubers out of the ground or its pot, you put her to sleep in a shed or a garage or any place where the temperature does not go below zero, and when spring comes around, you can just plant her again. Easier than that is impossible.
Years ago, I asked this question in my news blog: who has the oldest Begonia or Dahlia? I got lots of absolutely crazy responses, mostly about Dahlias, but there are people out there with decades old Begonias, too. Sometimes they were treated as real family heirlooms. If that is you, I would love to hear from you—even if you’ve emailed us before, I can be forgetful sometimes :) But all of this to say: if you have not tried Begonias yet, now is a great time to start. You won’t be disappointed!
Tip: the Three-coloured Begonia boliviensis have had a great year, and their quality is especially great this season.
If you have a garden, I recommend the Non-Stop Begonias: the name doesn’t lie.
If you want to plant them in a pot, I would start with Cascade Begonias: you won’t even see the pot anymore with the number of flowers these plants make!
I wish you some very happy shopping and I hope you enjoy our new assortment.
Kind regards,
Carlos van der Veek
