The bollenjongens have planted their bulbs and winter is coming. This means that the bulbs must be protected against frost and that is why a layer of straw is placed on the land. Reed used to be used for this and images from 1950 show how that was done then. Nowadays it is done by machines and Tim explains how that works.
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.
