Know your tulips: bulb growers issue advice to avoid ‘flower fraud’
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PostedOctober 17, 2019
Plastic tulips are more likely to bloom. Photo: Senay Boztas Black and blue tulips might look good on the packets – but they don’t exist. The KAVB Dutch bulb growers’ association has issued advice to consumers on how to choose and treat tulips, after a report this week showed evidence of ‘misleading sales’ at Amsterdam’s floating flower market on the Singel. The report, by Amsterdam city council and the KAVB, involved buying 102 packets of bulbs from 15 sellers in the famous and once-authentic market at the end of April this year. The specialist grower BQ support found that only 14 plants – 1% of the 1362 bulbs – produced flowers, and none matched the picture on the packets. A similar experiment on the flower boulevard in the major flower town of Lisse found only 2% of bulbs bloomed and only one matched its packaging. Timing ‘It was no surprise at all,’ KAVB director Prisca Kleijn told DutchNews.nl. ‘The most important thing for tulips is the moment they are grown: tulips grown in the summer should be sold for September and can be planted up to November. They need a period of cold and then they will come up in March or April. Between January and the summer you shouldn’t buy tulips as they should have been sold long before then.’ She said that consumers – especially the 19 million tourists who visit Amsterdam each year – also risk being misled by packaging. ‘The colours on the packaging sometimes don’t exist,’ she said. ‘In Amsterdam they sell bulbs promising blue and black tulips…but there aren’t any blue or black tulips, and this is a scam.’ Tulips do come in purple and dark purple, she added, but the packaging should not display impossible shades. ‘Supreme quality’ bulbs on sale in the floating flower market Photo: Senay Boztas Quality The quality of bulbs is another issue that concerns the experts. When DutchNews.nl visited the flower market earlier this week, some bulbs were out loose in large boxes in the rain, damp and partially sprouting. Kleijn recommended that a good bulb should […]
