The soil and the climate in the Northern Sand district are ideal for growing healthy bulbs. It takes several years to grow commercial-sized hyacinths, tulips, crocuses, daffodils and lilies. The soil and the climate in the Northern Sand district are ideal for growing healthy bulbs. It takes several years to grow commercial-sized hyacinths, tulips, crocuses, daffodils and lilies. Hyacinths need plenty of space to grow. So the number planted in a given area is regulated by a computer-controlled machine. The gardeners on the back of the machine set the bulbs upright. We know exactly what we planted. But we don’t know what the weather will do…. So we give them all a nice blanket. Wintertime in Anna Paulowna Spring is coming, so we put away the straw. Coming up We constantly check to prevent diseases and remove substandard bulbs. We also keep an eye on our cultivars, to make sure they match our high standard. It’s not only crop protection, but also the possibility to see all our crop. We do a lot of work improving bulb varieties. The search for improvements to the existing range is a never-ending job. Obviously we want the bulbs to produce beautiful and unusual flowers, but we also place a lot of emphasis on creating disease-resistant strains. Improving bulb varieties calls for great patience and ability to predict the outcome of a particular modification. Four of five years after showing a new tulip variety can be judged, because that is how long it takes for the plants to mature. If the new strain looks promising, further development takes place. All the hyacinths destined for the early preparation are harvested within a couple of days. This ensures that the bulbs will flower on time for the clients who count on us. Lunchtime. To make sure that the bulbs are harvested and transferred to the processing area as quickly as possible, this operation is highly automated. Sorting and counting the hyacinths by a machine which sorts by weight. And how and why we want the job to be done. Before the hyacinths can be exported to the customers we check the inner quality of the bulbs. When possible, modern machinery is used for peeling the bulbs as well. The tulips are cleaned, peeled, sorted, selected and counted in a single operation, followed by immediate storage in the processing rooms. Peeling and sorting. In these special conditioned rooms, the bulbs are temperature-treated, so that the customer can produce a cut flower or pot-plant at exactly the required moment. Both temperature and the humidity are carefully controlled as well as the fresh air which is continually circulated using computer-controlled equipment. In this new preparation rooms it is very important to check every day the climate for the bulbs, next to all other work, this is an important job to do. You can imagine, how much damage there can be, when you forget to do the job one day, when something does not work as it should.
