The reward of beauty
Dear readers,
Sometimes you come across something that makes you stop for a moment.
The other day I was in my shed, looking for a few bits and pieces for my bicycle. Nothing special. A bit of rummaging around, opening little boxes, finding things I had completely forgotten I still owned. And then, all of a sudden, there it was: the DVD of the documentary that was made about father Karel in 1998: Narcis, het loon van schoonheid. "The reward of Beauty."
That title says it all. I don’t think you could sum up a life among flowers much more beautifully than that.
We all went to the premiere at the Netherlands Film Festival in 1998.
My own father on the big screen.
The DVD I found again
My father, Karel van der Veek, was not an ordinary grower. It is something you only realise when you get older. As a child, you assume that everyone has thousands of daffodils and they walk through the mud every day, worrying about the shape of a little trumpet or the colour of a petal. Only later do you discover that most people do not spend hours studying a daffodil as if it were a work of art.
Father Karel did. And we, as children, probably absorbed that without even noticing.
Father Karel in his daffodil garden
Brother Carlos. Exactly the same!
Because at our home, here in Burgervlotbrug, it was never just about trade. Of course money had to be made as well, but in the end, everything revolved around beauty. Around wonder. Around the search for that one perfect flower that makes your heart skip a little beat. That may sound a bit romantic for a bulb grower from the Noordkop, but that really was who he was.
The documentary maker, Kees Hin, must have seen that too. In 1998, he made a film about my father and his daffodil collection in Burgervlotbrug. At the time, there were more than two thousand varieties of daffodils growing. All cared for by hand. Not some large commercial spectacle, but mostly a labour of love. Almost monk’s work.
And you can see that in the film. No fast music. No flashing images with dramatic voices. Just flowers. Wind. Light. Mud. A man walking among his daffodils as if he were walking among old friends. It was actually quite special that someone thought: we should make a film about this.
What I like about the title "The reward of beauty" is that it has a double meaning. Because beauty does not always pay in money. Sometimes quite the opposite. People who grow flowers, or any other crop for that matter, know this better than anyone. You pour thousands of hours of time and love into something, while nature takes absolutely no notice of that. Hail, rain, viruses, wind, night frost… nature is beautiful, but she can also be merciless.
And still, we, and many of you too, start all over again every season. Why? Because a beautiful flower in the garden does something to us. Because a daffodil in the morning sun can simply make you happy. Because beauty, apparently, is a kind of a reward after all. Perhaps even the finest reward there is.
Our children are growing up among those same daffodils too
I notice that, at Fluwel, we are still building on that. Not only in the nursery, but also at Land van Fluwel, in the picking garden, the show garden, and really in everything we do. In the end, we are simply trying to give people a little bit of the feeling my father used to have when he stood among his daffodils.
To pause for a moment.
To look for a moment.
To enjoy beautiful flowers for a moment .
Enjoy Life.
One last thing about the film: the documentary is described here: www.filmfestival.nl/film/narcis-het-loon-van-schoonheid Unfortunately, I have not been able to find the film itself online. Should I come across it, I will let you know. Some of you may enjoy seeing it.
Kind regards,
Sigge
Fluwel
