Rivers of gas-blue grape hyacinths flowing between trees. Florid hyacinths with a heavenly scent. Giant flower beds filled with a colourful mix of tulips, like a bag of boiled sweets, containing every conceivable flower shape, size, hue and height. Keukenhof Garden is spectacular, certainly, but perhaps the petals on my sense of fun – and tolerance – have faded.
Once the preserve of visitors interested in gardens and gardening, looking for the latest blooms to add to their own little slice of paradise, Keukenhof now seems to be the domain of those only interested in the self – and the selfie. Instead of dressing for the Netherlands’ unpredictable spring weather, ready to walk the 32km of garden paths, they arrive in sequined tops and pose across the flowerbeds.
I was forced to duck and limbo to avoid selfie sticks the length of fishing rods, which, when swung around, threaten to take my head off. Each to their own, of course, but it all felt rather intrusive, distracting and disrespectful.
A ‘river’ of hyacinths flowing through woodland at Keukenhof
Don’t get me wrong. Keukenhof remains unique and extraordinarily impressive: the colour, the sheer scale (32 hectares, seven million bulbs, 1,600 bulb species), the variety, the workmanship. Not to mention the hundreds of hours 40 gardeners have spent on planning, design, planting and maintenance, all for bulb producers to showcase their blooms.
But perhaps there ought to be dedicated days that separate the interests of the 1.4 million visitors each year. Days for garden lovers and days for those who simply want to create content for their followers.
It’s not just Keukenhof that’s overrun, though. Tourism is affecting the wider Bollenstreek region, the area between Leiden and Haarlem, where bulb production was first introduced to the Netherlands, at least between March and May, when the bulb fields bloom.
What shocked me during my visit this spring – one of many over the past 25 years – was the change since my last visit pre-Covid. Like the flower borders at Keukenhof, the colourful Bollenstreek bulb fields used to lie undisturbed. Now, field entrances are barricaded with mesh fencing and fluttering tape printed with “Do Not Cross”. Those fields not barricaded become go-to zones for selfie hunters, who have no qualms about wandering into the flowers, sometimes picking them.
Less than a mile from Keukenhof, Tulip Experience Amsterdam is an attraction run by the Pennings family, who have been bulb producers for five generations. It was set up, Sylvia Pennings told me, because “ever more production fields were being entered by people to take photos”.
As the excellent annual spring exhibition about the history of tulips and bulb cultivation – housed in the Pennings’ bulb harvest warehouse – details, visitors can be unaware that the bulb fields are not there simply to look pretty but are used for bulb production.
It can take more than five years to breed a new variety of tulip, and more than 20 years for bulb production to reach a field-sized scale suitable for sales. Trampling the fields causes significant damage to farmers’ crops.
Noord-Holland is home to one of the Netherlands’ largest flower-growing areas (Photo: Francesco Riccardo Iacomino/Getty/Moment RF)
“As growers, we wanted to create a place where visitors could enjoy and photograph tulips safely, while at the same time educating them about the flower bulb industry and the importance of respecting the production fields,” said Sylvia. To that end, there are striking areas of multicoloured tulips grown specifically for visitors to stand in and take selfies – they can even book a private viewing.
For those who simply want to enjoy a garden and the Netherlands’ colourful bulb fields without the distraction of influencers, there are places to go. Within Noord-Holland – the province that’s home to Amsterdam – the Noordelijk Zand area claims to be the country’s largest continuous flower bulb growing area (a claim also made by the Noordoostpolder area in Flevoland province). Here, fields bloom into mid-May, long after flowering in the Bollenstreek is over, and there’s less pressure on the area from tourism, particularly towards the end of the flowering season.
Poldertuin resembles Keukenhof in miniature (Photo: Caroline Mills)
In the small town of Anna Paulowna, Poldertuin is like a miniature Keukenhof, with thousands of bulbs showcased. Open year-round, it’s free to enter and was free of selfie-takers, too, during my visit. About an hour’s drive south of here, in Limmen, Hortus Bulborum displays historic varieties of flowers dating from 1595.
Specialist bulb grower Floratuin operates a self-pick tulip field in Julianadorp. It was quiet during my visit, but I was told social media has caused issues in the Noordelijk Zand area in general. “When it gets really bad, there are volunteers – Tulip Protectors – to stop people from entering the fields,” the assistant at Floratuin told me.
Floratuin’s show garden contains a wide variety of bulbs (Photo: Caroline Mills)
In the central-eastern province of Gelderland, meanwhile, Palais Het Loo’s extraordinary baroque gardens are exceptional. They do get busy, but when I visited this year on a spring bank holiday, the entire garden was empty for the first hour from opening.
There are options to stay surrounded by bulb fields, too – at places like De Groene Bollenschuur B&B in Hillegom, Zuid-Holland province, or Camperplaats Het Groene Hart, a campsite within cycling distance from Keukenhof. In Noord-Holland, there’s Camping Uitzicht at Julianadorp. “When visitors come here, they comment on all the people among the flowers at Keukenhof and can’t believe how peaceful it is overlooking the bulb fields here,” owner Petra Oudsten said. And I agree.
Palais Het Loo is home to impressive baroque gardens
As for Keukenhof, the last two hours of each day are quieter. When it reopens in March 2027, here’s to the garden being centre stage rather than a backdrop.
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