These are photos made at flower fields as well as at Keukenhof, a flower garden in Lisse, TheNetherlands. See more in the post.
History of Keukenhof
The history of Keukenhof, the name of meaning “kitchen garden”, goes back to the 15th century. Countess Jacqueline of Bavaria, Jacoba van Beieren (1401-1436) gathered fruit and vegtables from the woods and dunes her for the kitchen of Teylingen Castle. Keukenhof Castle was built in 1641, and the estate grew to an area of over 200 hectares.
Landscape architects Jan David Zocher and his son Louis Paul Zocher, who also designed Amsterdam’s Vondelpark, redesigned the castle gardens in 1857. That park, in the English landscape style, still forms the basis of Keukenhof.
In 1949 a group of 20 flower bulb exporters came up with a plan to use the estate for a permanent exhibition of spring-flowering bulbs, signalling the birth of Keukenhof as a spring park. The park opened its gates to he public in 1950 and was an instant success, with 236,000 visitors in the first year alone. In 2015 the 66th edition of Keukenhof is taking place, with Van Gogh as its theme. During the last 65 years Keukenhof has grown into a world-famous attraction.
Keukenhof is the international and independent showcase for the Dutch floricultural sector, with a special emphasis on flower bulbs. In the space of eight weeks Keukenhof shows what the Dutch floricultural sector has to offer. The focus in the park is on the 7 million spring-flowering bulbs, in which the 100 participating companies show their living catalogue. In more than 20 flower shows, 500 flower growers present an enormous variety of cut flowers and pot plants.
I am joining Lens and Pens by Sally, who hosts each Monday the Phoneography and Non-SLR Digital Devices Photo Challenge.
The schedule theme for this week’s challenge is: Nature
Ahh. Memories! Thanks for the photos!
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Happy you liked it!
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Lucile, tulips have become one of the Spring flowers that absolutely take my breath away. These images certainly show their majestic and stunning qualities. I can smell the hyacinths too. How fortunate to have such fields of splendor nearby. Happy Photo Challenge.
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Sally, we share the feeling. I adore tulips. Thank you so much for your generous comment.
I had never been to the hyacinth fields and you’re so right about the smell! I didn’t want to leave.
It was early for tulips so we could not see many but we will be back there
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Sorry I pressed sent by accident. Thanks for commenting and have a lovely week.
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How glorious! Jaw dropping beauty!
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Hi Coleen!! It’s an honor to see you here during your vacations!
Thank you.
Xx
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Hi Lucile! I was back on Sunday. We had a great time. 💖
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Wonderful to hear that! Welcome back. We missed you.
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Beautiful photos Lucile. I visited Keukenhof last year…such a magical place…
http://belgianstreets.com/2014/05/11/keukenhof/
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Thank you Andy! It’s indeed gorgeous place. Will check you photos!! Thanks for sharing.
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My pleasure!
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The flowers and fields are stunning! Beautiful photos, Lucile.
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Thank you Angeline!!. Much appreciated. Have a nice week.
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Lucile dearest – I love the geometry in these shots. The long lines of colour, you’ve composed them beautifully. What a lovely place! Xx
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Thank you dearest DJ. Would you like to visit it?? We could go immediately after landing from London.
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I am open to pretty much anything 🙂
Sounds perfect! X
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We will cover the country like the Chinese do here! All-in in 24 hrs! Just need to rent a bus! lol
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LoL, sign me up!!! 😉
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You’re already! Lol
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Beautiful flowers! Lucile, the way that you show depth and still manage to convey the beauty and focus of the flowers is excellent! I still have a lot to learn 🙂
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Thank you gfchopstix. Check the post tech of the month on point of view, written by perelincolors in my blog. It’s the first in the home page.. There you learn the tricks for achieving depth.
Have a lovely week.
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I will definitely do that, thanks, Lucile. You too – enjoy the short work week 😉
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Breathtaking! Thank you for sharing these fantastic photos of such lovely flowers!
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It must be amazing to see so many flowers. I have to laugh, as I’m waiting with anticipation for just a few daffodils to open. 🙂
janet
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Oh no…I didn’t want you to feel like that, Janet. It’s really beautiful particularly the fields.
Have a lovely week.,
Lucile
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As many times as I’ve been to Holland, I’ve never been there during tulip season. Is it right now? Did you take these recently?
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It has just started. I visited it last Sunday, but the tulips fields will be at its best in a few weeks. The hyacinth fields are blooming though.
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okay then I don’t feel so bad, because I had the last two weeks off and thought about seeing the tulips, but I want to see them FULL. I missed the French lavendar fields while in Provence…bummer
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No need to feel bad! Did you miss that? Ouch. It might be so beautiful!
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Right, nothing missed. And yes, I got to Provence just as the lavender fields were beginning to color. I got a shot of purple rows, but not the shot I wanted FULL of purple. With a monastery as background!
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That would have been a majestic shot!! But am sure the one you made is glorious too. Posting it?
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“would have been”…exactly! The one I got is puny, not majestic. And it’s on slide film, so need to transfer it to digital…some day! Or…I’ll have to return to Provence at the right time.
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In hindsight it’s better like that. With the tiny piece of knowledge I possess about you, it’s too much work to go through this transfer. You’d better make a new one with your brand new smartphone. Of course after you have passed the doubts phase and head to a shop to get one.
Hey, you can buy it online! Isn’t that an extra motivation or are you the one who needs to see it before buying??
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How very beautiful. You must have had a blast there. 🙂
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Such beautiful tulips! The closest flowers we have here are at Daffodil Hill but they bloomed very early and I missed going. Thanks for sharing these gorgeous photos, Lucile!
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Beautiful pictures. I love the rows of flowers, the straightness of them. Tamed nature. Thanks for the history information as well. 🙂
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So beautiful!
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Thank you!
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The happiest flags in the world 🙂 BEAUTY-full. Well done, Lucile!
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Thanks, Paula! Yes, indeed it looks like a happy flag! 😉
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Is this taken this spring Lucile? We still have another month to go before any greenery in the trees here in Canada, but the snow is pretty well gone. Daffodils are the 1st to make an appearance, hopefully it won’t be to much longer.
Seeing these fields of tulips is just amazing. So beautiful.
thank you for sharing the history. Very fascinating! 🙂
~Carl~
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Thank you Carl, I’m happy to share a bit of our spring with you,
I made it last weekend when visiting the fields and an open garden. The hyacinths are ready but the tulips are not yet ready in the fields. The ones you saw are in the gardens.
Have a lovely day.
Cheers!
Lucile
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the tulips are great and remind me of a story about the great tulip crash of the 18th century, i think. apparently tulips were in such high demand they were worth more than gold. at the height of the tulip craze one sold for more than an apartment in manhattan would sell for now.
and the kicker, the tulip was two toned like some in your pictures. and that two toned quality is apparently a defective gene. that’s kind of weird and cool.
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You really did your homework. Not many people know these facts, outside the Netherlands. Im under the impression that there has been much genetic manipulation since that time, as there are so many types of tulips that you can’t think of. While visiting the park I was amazed with what I saw. For example, i shot a tulip called Caribbean parrot…it had Caribbean colors, and it was a cross between a rose and a tulip, with some rococo features…maybe it’s works of nature…one never knows.
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the name alone sounds beautiful and so evocative, Carribean parrot. as for my tulip facts, that’s all of them, i only do my homework when it’s short 😉
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Great photos and enjoyed hearing some of the history you learned! I visited 2 weeks ago and it was as beautiful as ever http://www.jadescapades.com
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