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Episode 6: Everything in bloom

March 7, 2022

When winter is over, the straw that protects the bulbs from the cold has to be removed from the land. They call this chopping straw and Martijn shows how he does it in Hillegom. The straw is pulverized and blown into the paths of the tractors. However, there is also another method that forcibly sucks the straw from the land and then stores it for later reuse. It is always exciting for growers to determine the right moment for chopping.

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.

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All episodes

Episode 1: Sand, water and grass

The flower bulb region. A colorful area in the province of South Holland. The beautiful fields of tulips, daffodils and hyacinths attract more than a million visitors every year and both flowers and bulbs are important export products for The Netherlands. But how do the bulbs get on the land and the flowers in your […]
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Episode 2: A new season

It is October and planting season in the Dutch flower bulb region. One ‘bollenjongen’ sees it as a new start on the way to spring, for another spring is still far away because of the rain in autumn. Johan is with Daan who can finally get his full boxes of bulbs out of the shed […]
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Episode 3: All bulbs upright

Episode 3 answers the question that is often asked after the first two episodes of 'Bollenjongens': why are there no girls in the series? The boys explain. 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 […]
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Episode 4: Bulbs for the Keukenhof

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 […]
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Episode 5: Spring in winter

We saw earlier that Johan has succeeded in arranging his own Bollenjongens-flower-bed in the Keukenhof. Today he is taking a ride through the Flower bulb region to get the tulip bulbs from the boys. Then he immediately drives to Keukenhof to plant the bulbs together with Frans, the designer of the park. And even if […]
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Episode 6: Everything in bloom

When winter is over, the straw that protects the bulbs from the cold has to be removed from the land. They call this chopping straw and Martijn shows how he does it in Hillegom. The straw is pulverized and blown into the paths of the tractors. However, there is also another method that forcibly sucks […]
Read more..

Episode 7: A sustainable flower bulb region

The Flower bulb region looks beautiful three months a year, but the region unfortunately also has a less beautiful image. When the region makes the news, it is often about the crop protection products that are used in bulb cultivation. And that is not surprising, because it has always been the case that these crop […]
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Episode 8: Cut off the head!

The time has come, we can show the result of the bollenjongens-bed in Keukenhof. Six months ago, Johan planted the bulbs in the flowerbed together with Frans, the designer of the park. A rainbow was made from the tulips that were cared for by the bollenjongens. You regularly see irrigation machines on the fields in […]
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Episode 9: Bulbs, bulbs and more bulbs

The Flower bulb region is a major tourist attraction in march, april and may and more than a million people from all over the world enjoy the bulb fields every year and visit the Keukenhof. In this episode the bollenjongens guess where most tourists come from and what they actually think of all those tourists. […]
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Episode 10: Across the world

This final episode focuses on the export of the bulbs. Lucas works for an exporter of bulbs and explains what needs to be done before the bulbs can be exported abroad. The bulbs all have to look perfect, especially for Japan, because there they do something with the bulbs that we can't imagine. Allan's company […]
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We zijn heel benieuwd wat jij vindt van de serie ‘Bollenjongens’. Vind je het interessant, mooi, grappig of misschien wel verbazingwekkend? Of heb je andere woorden die je te binnen schieten als je het over ‘Bollenjongens’ hebt? Laat het ons weten! Mail naar johan@bollenjongens.nl