The New Amaryllis Harvest
You can order them again!
This year, we are a little bit earlier than usual, but we have noticed such a broad interest in the Amaryllis collection this year that we would really like to meet the demand of offering them sooner.
This week, I would like to show you around the greenhouses of Amaryllis growers. I see these greenhouses every year, but I am always in awe when I see those big, fat bulbs peeking out of the earth. We start off our day at Ben van Geest—a recurring character for my long-time readers at this point—he grows most of the varieties we offer in the Fluwel web shop. It took us two cups of coffee to make it out to the greenhouse, but here we are:
Ben always has a proud smile on his face when he shows me around his greenhouses. It’s especially justified this year, as the Amaryllises are looking great and have grown amazingly this season. That’s a good thing, because they have been very popular. Some of you may be thinking: Why are you surprised when you are growing them in a greenhouse? Aren’t the circumstances controlled by the people working there, and doesn’t that mean that every season is a good season? Unfortunately, no. Mother Nature still has a big influence on the bulbs, even in the controlled environment of the greenhouse. If the bulbs outside are doing badly, the greenhouses are struggling, too. The kind of spring and sunny summer we’ve had this year has been fantastic for the Amaryllis bulbs, and you can tell. But let’s go to the other greenhouse, where they are busy harvesting.
My sharp readers have probably noticed the Amaryllises still looking very green when they are just dug up, with a leek-like thing still attached to them. I was also surprised when I saw this for the first time, but the explanation is simple: Amaryllises are harvested as soon as they are big enough. It doesn’t make a difference if you leave them longer to grow a bit larger: they won’t make an extra flower if you give them that extra time. As soon as the bulb reaches size 30 or 32, there are almost always three stems for flowers, and letting them continue growing won’t get them to make a fourth. The smaller ones might make a third if they did not have it already, but they don’t have to: there is lots of demand for the smaller bulb size from countries like Japan and China. Big bulbs only fit 30 in a crate, which makes them incredibly expensive to ship. The smaller size bulb can fit up to 50 bulbs per crate, which makes them much more attractive to far away countries.
This greenhouse gets its turn tomorrow, or I should say tonight. The guys from the harvesting crew prefer to work at night, Ben tells me. During the day, they find the greenhouse much too warm. This is very common in greenhouses: work during the night and the very early morning hours, and by the time the hottest part of the day arrives, everyone is long gone. Before the bulbs are dug up, the leaves are pulverised with a kind of mowing machine. Then, they are taken out of the soil and the bulbs are shaken to let go of each other and big clumps of sand.
Then, they are lined up like this in order to let them dry for a day. The next day, more green is cut off, and they are moved to a warehouse to continue drying.
Drying looks like this. They are in a kind of plastic tunnel, which has a large fan in the back. Dry air is blown through the stacks of bulbs, which makes them dry even better. This is important, because if they aren’t properly dried, they can get fungus and mold. Especially the roots are at risk for this, so this step must be done very carefully.
These bulbs are sufficiently dried and are ready to go to the sorting machine.
Before they go on to the sorting machine, the last leaves are taken off and the leftover sand is shaken out of the roots.
Then, the bulbs are placed onto these stands one by one. They go on to a machine that calculates their exact dimensions.
When they have gone through that part of the machine, they are moved along, still in their stands, towards crates with different sizes of bulbs. The machine ejects them into the crate of their exact size.
Lastly, there is someone ready to move them upright in their crate. The different sizes are for different customers with different preferences. This bulb is Cherry Amadeus, Ben told me. We have them in the Fluwel web shop this year. Maybe you have seen your future bulb in one of these photographs!
Not all of them go to the web shop, we also sold a lot of them to a customer in Vietnam. It’s a popular variety. Lots of people have put on an alert for this one this year. Ben asked me how that worked, and I explained it to him: on our website, you can leave your e-mail address for varieties you are especially interested in. When you do that, you will receive an e-mail as soon as that variety goes online, and you can order right away. Cherry Amadeus is always popular, and Ben, who is always curious, asked me which one gets the most e-mail addresses. It’s not Cherry Amadeus: she is the runner-up. Number one is Candy Belle, from grower Kees.
Another one of those beautifully coloured double Amaryllises. I think they will be sold out very soon, so if you have a few left over… but everyone asks for this one, it’s new, and those are always in demand.
So what is Ben’s best-selling Amaryllis?
The Amaryllis Ben grows most are the older, more renowned kinds, like Picotee and Cherry Nymph.
These varieties are more well-known, and therefore in high demand. New varieties are always a bit slower to really take over the market. They are first introduced in web shops like Fluwel, where people can see them in their houses. Then, the larger buyers enter the scene, which means people who buy bulbs not necessarily to put in their home, but for their own work or larger projects. And then lastly, the big export companies join in.
It was a great tour, and I looked forward to writing a newsletter about it. I know my readers always love to know how exactly the flower bulbs end up in their home
Lastly, I want to thank Ben for the special varieties he offers our web site for our true Amaryllis enthusiasts. On our web site, you can find some Amaryllis varieties that do not have a name yet. Some of those are Ben’s: they are new varieties that are not yet fully introduced to the market, and of which it is not certain if they will even have a future. The flowers are all beautiful, that is never the problem. They have all been selected because they add something to the existing assortment when it comes to colour or size, but we do not yet know if they grow quickly enough. That will determine if Ben and his colleagues continue a variety.
In other years, these bulbs were always sold to tourists passing by, who wanted to buy a bulb on the spot. Without a name, just a colour. But this year, I wanted to add some of them to our assortment. All of these varieties are special, with very limited stock. Really for the Amaryllis enthusiasts who want to have something no one else has.
We cannot promise you that these varieties will remain available: they are true ‘limited editions’. If a variety does well, you might see her again later with her own name.
Now I’m going to go on to Kees and Arie van Velden to look at their greenhouses, and if I have time left over, I also want to go to Martin Boers. Typical: I had intended to visit 8 growers today, but at the third location, the day was over. I’ll have to return another day, then.
So. The most important part: The Amaryllis bulbs are online again in our web shop as of today! As you know, we do not ship the bulbs right away: this newsletter was a live look at where the bulbs are now, so they still must be dried and cooled before they can go to your home. An Amaryllis bulb needs to be stored at 15 degrees Celsius for 8 weeks to rest. This is an important period for the bulb, as this makes sure that she will bloom during wintertime in your home. The Amaryllis bulbs you order now will be shipped out starting at the end of October.
Kind regards,
Carlos van der Veek
Carlos van der Veek
