“We make our bulb fields as beautiful as possible, we mix the colors and put a windmill and benches in between,” says Edwin Koeman.
In the two picking gardens that he and his partner Nitsuhe Wolanios now have in Italy, visitors can enjoy the floral splendor and the entrance fee of 4 euros per person also includes two tulips.
Pay extra to pick
If they want to pick more tulips themselves, visitors have to pay extra for this. The amount varies. At the beginning of the season that is 1 euro per tulip, later, when everything is in full bloom, 1.50 per tulip.
“People here really like flowers, but flowers are much more expensive here than in Germany, for example. When Italians buy flowers, they buy fewer flowers, but very beautiful ones,” says Koeman.
More than 1 million bulbs
So a second Keukenhof, but in Italy? Koeman does not want to make that comparison. In their Tulipani Italiani (literally: Italian Tulips) they still plant the tulip bulbs by hand and the whole is still a bit smaller than the Keukenhof, Koeman explains.
But it is still an impressive amount of bulbs that have gone into the ground and are blooming. On the site near Milan, where Tulipani Italiani started, there are about 600,000 flower bulbs.
And near Turin, another city in northern Italy, where Koeman also planted a piece of land for the first time this year, there are another 470,000 bulbs. Less than the 7 million of the Keukenhof, but together it still concerns more than 1 million pieces.
‘Immediate success’
The Italians like to come here. “At the time, we were the first in Italy where visitors were allowed to pick flowers themselves,” says Koeman.
“There were quite a few skeptics who thought it wouldn’t work out, but the first year was an immediate success and we expanded after that.”
Hoping for dry weather
During the week, Koeman is very happy with a thousand visitors a day. But during holidays they sometimes double. But the bulk of the Italians come on weekends. Then Koeman and Wolanios receive between 5000 and 9000 visitors per day.
But then it should not rain, because then there will be much fewer people. “Then you lose a huge amount of turnover, says Koeman.
Comes from the tulip family
It should come as no surprise that Koeman is into tulips. “I come from a tulip family,” he says. Koeman worked, among other things, for an exporter of flower bulbs, a market place for the trade in flower bulbs and a tulip nursery.
When Koeman’s brother started a picking garden in the US, he helped out there for a while. Something like that seemed something to Koeman, but it is now difficult to enter the US. For one of his previous jobs he had to learn Italian and Koeman decided seven years ago to take the plunge to Italy together with his partner Nitsuhe Wolanios.
Take turns to Turin
It was a hectic time, especially in the beginning, also because Koeman and his partner have two children together. They now have a cleaning lady and a babysitter for the first time, but they have to, because they take turns going to Turin for a few days to arrange things for their picking garden there.
Gradually the organization gets bigger. But finding staff is difficult, also because it is seasonal work. That is why Koeman has to find new people for the most part every year.
Busy
The picking gardens are only open for a few weeks, from about March 20 to the end of April, says Koeman. Initially he thought he would have plenty of time in the rest of the year, he says, but that is disappointing.
“I’m busy with the administration throughout the month of May, and because you’re now open seven days a week, you don’t get to do a lot of things. So that has to be made up later.”
It is a bit quieter in the summer, but it starts again in September, because then we have to see which bulbs have done the best and then buy them. Furthermore, a new permit must be applied for every year.
‘This weekend is going to be crazy’
Koeman is therefore not thinking of expanding to other locations for the time being. At most, he considers extending the blooming season by planting bulbs of flowers that bloom before tulips do, and with flowers that bloom after tulips, such as irises. Then more visitors can come.
This Easter weekend, Koeman and his partner will certainly be very busy. “It’s going to be crazy,” he says.
In this video you can see that the high gas prices have made this way of growing tulips by grower Niels even more interesting:
