Keukenhof

Last Thursday, March 18, Kelly, her mom, her Mom's friend, and I headed to Keukenhof. It was officially opened the day before by Princess Maxima and Mrs Svetlana Medvedeva, wife of the President of the Russian Federation. It has been a long cold winter so we wern't sure how many flowers would be blooming but we took our chances and headed there on opening day.

It is a beautiful garden that is rather large. There are ponds and fountains and trees and a windmill. Most of the flowers wern't in bloom yet but there were still several indoor structures that housed many flowers and flowerbeds. Those were decked out and in full bloom. There were also pots of plants scattered throughout the park to add color and beauty.

Of course I had to take a picture of the pink tulip!! I'm working on my photography skills and trying to be more creative. I'm not sure how it is working, but I do like the tulip picture!!

They had a group out singing under the windmill. They were singing fun, upbeat, happy songs for the opening day. I have no idea how long they were there since we didn't get there until late afternoon, but they were very enjoyable!

These little suckers are blooming all over the country side. They are in the medians of the roads, scattered around parks, and can be bought at the grocery store. They are a bulb plant, but I'm not sure if they are officially a tulip or something similar. Since they are so common I could probably find out a lot of information about them if I investigated it further. I haven't, my appoligies.

Red tulips might be my new favorite. Even more so than pink. I know, its quite the shocker. They are just so radiant and pretty. We even had some at our house a few weeks ago and they are still my favorite. There is just something about their deep, vibrant color.

Of course I had to take a picture by the pink potted plants. I think these might have been hydrangeas but I can't promise. I did learn something about hydrangeas though, that their blooms change color with the acidity levels in the soil. Stu gave Kelly one while he was here and I'm not sure if its dead yet, but it is headed that way. We are not good flower people.

See! They had lots of flowers planted indoor! A wide variety of all colors of tulips. Even they were still on the verge of blooming though. I guess you can't see all the flowers at once and it makes sense that they stage the flowers to bloom during different periods so that the place is always beautiful. I guess I'll be making a few trips back. One of which will be this weekend with my Mom when she comes. I wonder how much will have changed during this week of warm weather and sunshine.

The theme for Keukenhof this year is "From Russia with Love" which is why the gardens were also opened with the help of the Russians. They also bred a new type of tulip called the VVV tulip, and its baptism will be March 31 at 12. I know this from the web site HERE. I have not become a lunatic tulip follower...at least not yet. They are pretty plants though! Below is a picture of an indoor exhibit we saw. They were still setting it up and getting things ready, but there's nothing like a ballerina dancing in the flowers!

Below, they have carved out and planted a mosiac of St. Basil's Cathedral. I can't wait to see this in bloom! I will probably have to go back several times to see everything in bloom. I might look into their spring pass. The story though, is that after the architect designed and built the cathedral the "President" of Russia had him blinded so he could not recreate anything to compete with it. I'm glad I wasn't born in Russia although I would love to go there someday!

These tulips have a crinkly type edge around them, sort of like they are wilting but not. I have never seen such tulips until I bought them last week at the local flower vendor. I thought they looked interesting. Of course the tulips here are much prettier than the ones we had, but I still find the deep red ones my favorite.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures of the flowers! It sounds like you will be seeing more of them when I go with Mom this weekend. I can't wait for her to arrive and be able to do a bit of touring. We have planned to go to Delft, Brugge, Antwerp, Amsterdam, and then Nurnberg and Prague. It will be a fun but busy week while she is here. I have taken off a few days of work to be able to spend extra time with her. It is a very great birthday present, I couldn't ask for more....but then we are going to the diamond district.....