I Owe You An Answer
Sometimes, my readers remind me that I promised to answer certain questions in a previous newsletter only for me to never get back to the subject again. I think they call that a cliffhanger, when you say you’ll talk about something next week and leave the people anticipating your response until then. The suspense is there for an entire week, and then when the next newsletter comes, I have forgotten about it completely.
To be honest with you, it is not my intention to entice you to read the next newsletter. Maybe that does not sound like a good business decision, but I think that it is only logical that sometimes people just select ‘delete’ when they are short on time, or just not in the mood to read a blog. I know I do for some of the newsletters and blogs I subscribe to.e are:
The thing is, I have a maximum word count for my newsletters. There are wonderful people translating them, and because I try to tell you about the flower bulb world in real time, they usually have just one day to do that. Whenever I go near my maximum number of words, I just say that I’ll get back to it next week, and then I promptly forget about the whole thing.
But the number of readers is growing steadily, and some of you are not shy about letting me know when I leave you hanging. Like two weeks ago, when I promised I would let you know what my most frequently given answer was and then I did not tell you last week. And it’s still relevant, too: I have told this to people several times this past week, too.
If you are a long-time reader, you will already know about this phenomenon, but newer members might not be aware. And speaking of newer members: there are many of them, too!
If you are a long-time reader, you will already know about this phenomenon, but newer members might not be aware. And speaking of newer members: there are many of them, too!
That’s another one of those things that I’ve wanted to talk about for quite some time now: the fact that I have so many new readers. There is a large number of people who have recently subscribed to my newsletter, and I cannot thank you all enough. Just a few short weeks ago, the number of readers was just shy of 20.000, which I already found impossible to visualise, but now? We’ve more than doubled that, and there are 50.000 people receiving this every single week. Can you imagine? I feel incredibly honoured that I get to talk to so many amazing, interested people every single week. I don’t take it lightly. I truly can’t put that feeling into words, and I am deeply grateful to all of you.
But I got sidetracked again! Back to the most frequently given answer. Let’s start with the most frequently asked question of this time of year: Why oh why do those flower bulb growers turn their lands into shallow lakes right now?
But I got sidetracked again! Back to the most frequently given answer. Let’s start with the most frequently asked question of this time of year: Why oh why do those flower bulb growers turn their lands into shallow lakes right now?
A very logical question. When you drive through our area, you see many large pieces of land completely flooded with water. It’s obviously on purpose: there are little dunes created to contain the water, or there is a low, plastic wall placed around the land. It looks like the growers are getting ready to grow rice, but that is not what is happening here (we all eat potatoes every day).
Flooding the land for a period of three months is an environmentally friendly way to kill weeds, leftover bulbs, fungi and moulds, and other living organisms that are detrimental to your flower bulbs. It’s a very old practice that is still used widely today.
A fun side effect of this is that the flower bulb growers have unintentionally created a Walhalla for birds. During the first few weeks, it’s mostly seagulls, geese, ducks and other native habitants, but once September and October roll around, there are also birds that travel south for winter who make a pit stop in these fields. It’s a sort of all-you-can-eat buffet for birds, with the way small organisms float to the surface of the flooded fields.
Our area is therefore gaining more and more recognition from bird watchers, who travel to North Holland during this time to see the foraging birds. They almost equal the numbers of flower bulb watchers in Spring, which is a lot of fun. Though I do get the feeling that some of our neighbours might give their cat a little less food when their driveway is half-blocked by these new tourists for the third day in a row.
Another thing I promised to remind you of is the idea to plant random tufts of Daffodils around your house. I always get so many compliments about the stray Daffodils around my property, and I am sure they will make you smile as well.
It’s so easy to do: you can plant groups of Daffodils in random spots around the house, or maybe secretly around the road you live on, on the sides of ditches, just everywhere you might want to see some more flowers. I’m sure it will make you happy once spring rolls around, and if you’ve wanted to do this for years but never got around to it, this is your sign to make it happen this year!
Before you know it, April rolls around, and you are asking yourself why you forgot about it again.
Jetfire and Carlton are perfect for this kind of job. They are great at naturalising and becoming part of the ecosystem. Other Daffodils that are hard to mess up are Actaea, Argent, Hello Sunshine, Louise de Coligny, La Riante, and Texel Sun. In the right circumstances, almost every Daffodil can come back year after year, but the varieties I just listed will work even in subpar circumstances, like underneath trees, on roadsides, in ditches, and they survive when the county mows the lawns too early, just to give a few examples. These varieties are completely unbothered by all of it, so getting a good result on your first try is very much possible!
Jetfire and Carlton are perfect for this kind of job. They are great at naturalising and becoming part of the ecosystem. Other Daffodils that are hard to mess up are Actaea, Argent, Hello Sunshine, Louise de Coligny, La Riante, and Texel Sun. In the right circumstances, almost every Daffodil can come back year after year, but the varieties I just listed will work even in subpar circumstances, like underneath trees, on roadsides, in ditches, and they survive when the county mows the lawns too early, just to give a few examples. These varieties are completely unbothered by all of it, so getting a good result on your first try is very much possible!
So if you want to enjoy your own wild tufts of Daffodils… welcome to our web shop.
Kind regards,
Carlos van der Veek
Kind regards,
Carlos van der Veek
