Five Regular Hamburgers and One Veggie Burger, Please
Dear Customer,
It’s always great fun to take our Dream Team to Land van Fluwel for lunch. They spend their days elbow-deep in Daffodil bulbs, so they very much deserve a made-by-Linda-pancake-lunch every once in a while.
This week, we had to wait for our order a little bit longer than usual, but for a great reason: there were over 500 visitors in the park at the moment. Last week, we would have been stressed about it as there was still so much left to do, but now, the end of the constant stream of Daffodils is near, and we could relax for a little bit. That’s probably also why everybody ordered the burger: When in a hurry, you order a pancake, because that is the dish that takes our kitchen staff the least amount of time to prepare. A burger just takes a bit more time when everything gets assembled only after someone has ordered one, and eating it is also slightly more time-consuming than the pancake, when there is also a salad and fries to get to. Getting through the Daffodils requires some stamina, but the hamburgers Linda and Mirea serve are also not for the weak.
I could introduce you to everyone on our Daffodil Dream Team, as I have done in previous years, but then this newsletter would probably be way too long yet again. In the picture above, you probably know everyone already. The lady on the left is Bregt, she’s been with us for years by now, and if I remember correctly, she even wrote part of a blog some time ago. The lanky one on the far right is Sigge, my brother’s oldest. His kids are all tall and blonde, as opposed to mine with their dark hair and—for Dutch people!—short frames. Sigge is a good worker, especially after he’s done asking way too many relevant and irrelevant questions. He is that one person that still has to finish his food when everyone has long since finished, and when he finally is done with his plate, he checks if there’s any leftovers to take on somewhere else. I suppose it does take a lot of food to sustain those nearly two meters of teenager body.
But back to the bulbs. Or Land van Fluwel. We have had a lot of fun over the past few weeks. The weather has been perfect for a visit, and every time I come by, I see many happy guests. As you can see, we are far from the only ones enjoying our lunch here: There is a full terrace next to one of the playgrounds, so parents can let their kids run around for a little longer while having a beer. You always see us sitting at the same table inside, next to the kitchen, but there are more places to choose from!
At our barefoot-adventure path, it looks like the lockers might be full, or maybe people didn’t really mind leaving their shoes alone for a bit. I think it makes a fantastic image to see the shoes surround the bare-feet sign. But I have to leave now, and go to Jan Hein to go over our list of Daffodils for the year. Jan Hein is another one of our recurring characters in the newsletter, so if you’ve been here a while, you know him, too. If you’re new here, Jan Hein grows most of the Daffodils we offer at the Fluwel web site. Broadly speaking, Fluwel offers two kinds of Daffodils: The regular assortment, which are still for sale on our site, and the Fluwel Special Narcissus, the tiny varieties that can no longer be ordered for this season, as these are the ones we are currently processing with our dream team.
The numbers of these varieties are so small they have to be done fully by hand, and once the bulbs we have sold are taken out, they are stored until they are planted again. It would be way too much work to continue selling them, as we would then be constantly looking through all the varieties to get just one bulb for an order. In about six weeks, they’ll go back to the fields to be planted, so we can do it all again next year.
Narcissus Seedling BD 2879
True Daffodil Enthusiasts already know this, and they probably had their wish list ready to go the moment our Special Narcissus went online, but if you missed out this year and might want to dip your toes into these varieties next season, please remember to order them as soon as you see the website go live, especially when you have varieties you really want to try. Sometimes, we only have a handful of bulbs available from a specific variety, and if they’re gone, that is it for the year. These varieties are too small to sell a large number of bulbs. In the photograph, you see one of next season’s newcomers. I think she’s phenomenal. She comes from master-hybridizer Brian Duncan in Northern Ireland, and she is still waiting for a name. If you know a good one, let me know! I’m always open to Daffodil name suggestions
The Daffodils at Jan Hein are a completely different story. Jan Hein grows most of the Daffodils that are available to order until well into Autumn. These Daffodils are sold in large numbers and they go all over Europe. Jan Hein has over 250 of these kubic crates, ‘kubic’ because the dimensions are 1 meter by 1 meter by 1 meter. Jan Hein is both happy and stressed about the growing number of bulbs we are selling: we love seeing more and more people order Daffodils, but expanding our business is hard work, especially when you have a young family, like Jan Hein does.
I said that I would look around and inquire if there are any growers in the area that would be interested in taking over one of our largest varieties, but I haven’t found anyone yet. That is also because I was in the United States this Spring, just as the Daffodils here in The Netherlands were at their peak, too. Growers are just too busy during that time, and I wasn’t physically here to show them our Daffodils. But I had to choose, and this time, I really did not want to miss out on the American Daffodil Society’s yearly convention.
So if I have a reader that is available to take over one of these varieties, you know where to find me! Though I don’t expect to find another local grower through the English version of our newsletter, but you know, never say never.
Another beautiful Daffodil that deserves the spotlight:
A curious little Daffodil. She looks a bit cheeky to me, and this one is always one of the first ones to show her long nose in your garden. She announces the imminent arrival of your Daffodil collection, and while she looks delicate and small, her actual character is the opposite of that: This is a tough little flower. She remains in bloom for a long time and can come back for many years when she is happy with her spot. A real champion!
Time to say goodbye for this week.
Kind regards,
Carlos van der Veek
