But how do the bulbs get on the land and the flowers in your vase? In this series we follow 11 ‘bollenjongens’ for one year. Young entrepreneurs in the flower bulb region, who are busy all year long on their land and in the barn.

In the first episode, the ‘bollenjongens’ (bulbs boys) show how they prepare the land for the new planting season.

You may have noticed that at the end of the summer more and more grasslands arise in the flower bulb region. Where there used to be tulips and daffodils, you can now cycle along the meadows. Ruben explains why this grass is sown.

In addition, you increasingly see bulb growers flooding their entire plots, which is also a preparation for the new season. Bart explains why he does this. And those ‘lakes’ also turn out to be a safe place for geese that stay there at night.

And we are with Allan in Lisse where his land is being plowed. And that is very different than in the past, you can see on images from 1950.

Further on in this broadcast an answer to the question of what the ‘bollenjongens’ prefer to be called: growers, entrepreneurs, young farmers or bulb farmers. And why is the Veenenburgerlaan between Lisse and Hillegom actually higher in the landscape?

And finally, the ‘bollenjongens’ describe themselves.

Het bericht Episode 1: Sand, water and grass verscheen eerst op BOLLENJONGENS.

Johan is with Daan who can finally get his full boxes of bulbs out of the shed to start planting. Daan says that he almost had been an aviator, but that he missed the bulbs so much that he chose to join his parents’ company. When loading the boxes on a cart, Daan has to take cover when Johan lends him a hand.

Images from the early 1950s show that the tulips used to be planted by hand, piece by piece. A huge difference with the four million tulips that Daan is planting today on a field of three hectares.
It is not self-evident that Daan will take over the company from his parents, his father Patrick explains: “It takes seven or eight years before you have mastered this profession. And Daan really has to prove himself.”

The ‘bollenjongens’ were asked how many bulbs go into the ground in the Bulb Region each year. And that question turns out to be a lot easier than the answer.

The tulip and hyacinth bulbs that are now planted into the ground will be sold at the end of the season. But the growers also need new bulbs for the next season. How do they get those bulbs? For a tulip this is a completely different process than for a hyacinth. A hyacinth requires a lot more attention. Martijn shows how growers produce new hyacinth bulbs.

Stan is also busy with hyacinths, he fills millions of pots with bulbs in autumn so we have spring flowers indoors in the winter. And filling those jars is all manual work.

Finally, the ‘bollenjongens’ tell us what their favorite flower is.

Het bericht Episode 2: A new season verscheen eerst op BOLLENJONGENS.

The Keukenhof is the largest flower park in the world that attracts more than a million visitors every year. But that’s really secondary. The park is actually mainly a place for growers to show their customers which bulbs they produce with their own show garden. But the park must of course be a beautiful whole. And designer Frans takes care of that. He tells Johan how he does that and Johan takes the opportunity to ask whether he can also get his own flower bed in the Keukenhof together with the ‘bollenjongens’.

Frans also regularly visits growers to discuss the design of their show garden. How does Frans envisage this and can the growers supply the bulbs for it? And do the growers themselves have any wishes? Bollenjongen Mark also has a show garden in the park and Frans will visit Mark to put together his perk for the coming season.

Tim is into hyacinths and will eventually take over the company from his father and uncle together with his cousin. Tim tells what it is like to work in a family business and why he chose it after working for a different boss. Today Tim is in Voorhout to plant hyacinths on the land and that turns out to be a bizarre job, which is a lot more labour-intensive than planting tulips. Johan discovers the office humor of the hyacinth planters.

And can you learn to become a ‘bollenjongen’? You can go to school for it, but according to the ‘bollenjongens’ you won’t make it.

Het bericht Episode 3: All bulbs upright verscheen eerst op BOLLENJONGENS.

The straw cover machine is not owned by Tim’s company. It is not feasible for growers to purchase all the machines themselves. For a lot of work on the land, they therefore use contract workers, who rent out machines and personnel for planting, heading or harvesting, for example. Ruben works in his parents’ contracting company and will take over the company in the future. He shows how many machines they have and, as a 21-year-old, explains how his company can make such huge investments.

We are also visiting Stan. Earlier we saw that in the winter Stan filled tens of millions of jars with hyacinths. Now they come out of the cell and the floor of the shed is full of those jars. A nice sight, but when can they go to auction? And Johan sees very special hyacinths in the cell. Who ordered them?

And we go with Mark to the Keukenhof. He has his own show garden there and brings 30,000 bulbs to the park for this purpose. But when Mark and Johan arrive, the reception is very different from what Johan expected.
In the space where orchids are normally exhibited, there are now a few hundred thousand bulbs, ready to be planted.

Further answers to the questions whether the bollenjongens are rich and they tell how ‘educational’ their joint annual trip to a trade fair in Hanover was.

Het bericht Episode 4: Bulbs for the Keukenhof verscheen eerst op BOLLENJONGENS.

It is winter in the Flower bulb region. It’s snowing and freezing, but that doesn’t mean nothing is happening in the area. This is because tulips are grown in Frank’s greenhouses. The bulbs are given a special temperature treatment that makes them think that it is already spring so they bloom in winter. Millions of bulbs are pinned by hand in boxes and grown on water for several weeks before being bunched and sent to auction. We also show special images of the very first forcing tests in the Bollenstreek long ago, not in a greenhouse, but with heated pipes under the ground.

Until recently, Bart worked as a planner at another flower company and occasionally at his parents’ company in Hillegom. This week he quit his job and decided to work from home full-time and eventually take over his parents’ company. That may seem obvious because he is offered a nice company on a silver platter. In a conversation with Bart and his father, however, it turns out that this is not as obvious as it may have been in the past.

And Bart also takes us to the barn, because like Frank, Bart also does flower forcing in winter, but in hyacinths. And as always, things are slightly different from tulips. Bart shows us how you get a more beautiful hyacinth flower that also lasts longer in the vase.

And finally, the bollenjongens answer the question whether they are proud of what they do. And not everyone pronounces it that easily.

Het bericht Episode 5: Spring in winter verscheen eerst op BOLLENJONGENS.

Coincidentally, Martijn’s father also walks on the land and he tells us what the most important change has been in the sector over the past twenty years. And was the profession more romantic in the past or is that nonsense?

When the straw is off the land, spring comes and it goes fast. First the crocuses, then the daffodils and hyacinths and finally the tulips come to full bloom in April. Everywhere in the Flower bulb region you will see the most beautiful bulb fields and you can smell the sweet scent of hundreds of millions of flowers. You can enjoy this extensively in Bollenjongens, because we show you the most beautiful fields.

Het bericht Episode 6: Everything in bloom verscheen eerst op BOLLENJONGENS.

Fortunately, developments in this area are moving quickly, fewer and fewer resources are being used and the bulb boys themselves also want to produce more sustainably. Johan is with Daan to talk about this topic and to view the latest crop protection machine that Daan has recently bought.

Not only do new sprayers ensure better use of resources, but other innovations also help. Ben Langeslag is an expert in precision agriculture and he shows Ruben and Johan a scanning machine. This machine measures various soil properties of a plot. Based on this, a map is made that indicates where on the plot something needs to be sprayed or not, instead of a grower spraying the same amount everywhere on the plot. This not only saves resources, but also a lot of money.

We think the Flower bulb region is beautiful, but what do the birds actually think of this area? Is the region a suitable area for birds to live and reproduce? Johan goes into the bulb fields early in the morning with Paul Venderbosch of Agrarische Natuur en Landschapsvereniging Geestgrond to spot birds in de bulbfields. And they would prefer to encounter a rare partridge, but that would be very special. And finally, we hear from the bollenjongens which birds they know and what they do when they see a nest in the field.

Het bericht Episode 7: A sustainable flower bulb region verscheen eerst op BOLLENJONGENS.

You regularly see irrigation machines on the fields in the spring and summer. You often drive past it carelessly, but it is a nice system to take a closer look at. And the fields are not only irrigated when it is dry. Ruben tells that he used to have two irrigation machines, but that he can only have one now. He explains where that limit comes from during irrigation.

About 16,000 labor migrants work in the region every year to do all the work that no Dutch are willing to do. But there is also a shortage of foreign employees. That is why employment agencies do everything they can to ensure that labor migrants come and stay in the region. And that’s more than you might think. And because of all the labor migrants that the bollenjongens work with, they now also know some Polish words. But what words do they know and what do those words mean?

In the afternoon we meet Ruben again, but this time in De Zilk. There is a bright red tulip field in bloom that attracts a large audience. But not for much longer, because Ruben is going to head the tulips. When he is busy, it turns out that not all tulips are headed. When Johan asks him whether he does not adjust the machine a bit lower, Ruben explains why that is not an option.

Het bericht Episode 8: Cut off the head! verscheen eerst op BOLLENJONGENS.

In this episode the bollenjongens guess where most tourists come from and what they actually think of all those tourists. We also show special images of the very first flower parade and the visit of Winston Churchill to the flower region in 1947.

Nowadays, the bollenjongens and their families are also doing more and more to keep tourists in the region longer than just a visit to the Keukenhof. Sylvia, Allan’s niece, therefore founded the Tulip Experience Amsterdam. This combination of a museum, show garden and picking garden is located in Noordwijkerhout and Sylvia explains why the name ‘Amsterdam’ was chosen.

Another initiative is the ‘Tulip Barn’ of Carlo’s sister, a bulb field in the shape of a rainbow, which tourists are allowed to walk through to take pictures. In other bulb fields, this is not allowed due to the risk of disease transmission. With these initiatives, they want to give tourists the opportunity to admire, smell and photograph the flowers up close and thus let them experience the region even more.

When spring has passed and the bulbs have finished flowering, they will remain in the ground for a few weeks to continue growing before they can be lifted. To know when the time has come, the bollenjongens check their bulbs several times. Allan explains how you can see and feel when a bulb is ripe enough to be harvested.

And then summer begins. The busiest time of the year for the bollenjongens. The hundreds of millions of bulbs have to be removed from the land in a short time and processed in the bulb shed. Carlo harvests them on his land in Lisse, after which the bulbs are immediately placed in front of a drying wall for a few days. Carlo explains how such a drying wall works.
The bulbs then go through the peeling machine and are sorted by size. The bigger the sphere, the more it yields.

But how is the price of a batch of tulips determined? There are special intermediaries who negotiate between buying and selling parties. Eric Barnhoorn is such a mediator who negotiates the numbers, the price and the quality conditions. Johan is with Eric at a grower in De Zilk and witnesses a telephone negotiation. Of course Johan tries to raise the price a bit, but whether that has so much success…?

And because the bollenjongens are so busy in the summer, time must also be made for some relaxation. The bollenjongens tell us how they relax.

Het bericht Episode 9: Bulbs, bulbs and more bulbs verscheen eerst op BOLLENJONGENS.

Allan’s company is a nursery and exporter in one. As the largest tulip grower in the region, they export all bulbs themselves. This produces an impressive image when Johan and Allan stand at the top of the bulb shed and look out at the tens of millions of bulbs.
Allan shows Johan how the bulbs are packaged for consumer sale.

We briefly look back at the past year and have some good news: a little bulb boy is on the way. Who is the lucky father?

Finally, we look ahead with the bollenjongens and Andries Middag of the Greenport Dune- and Bulb Region. What exactly is and does a greenport do and which themes will be the biggest challenge for the region in the coming years. And the bollenjongens tell us how they found it to make de series ‘Bollenjongens’.

Het bericht Episode 10: Across the world verscheen eerst op BOLLENJONGENS.