Pink, orange-red, white, yellow. 100.00 colorful tulips sparked brightly in the spring sun last Saturday in San Francisco, where flower bulbs were promoted during the annual Flower Bulb Day. People waited up to two hours in line to harvest their free tulips. The promotional event was organized by Royal Anthos (the Dutch Royal Trade association for Flower Bulbs and Nursery Stock), iBulb (a part of Royal Anthos) and the Consulate of General of San Francisco, who are transporting the tulips to the tourist center.
Hendrik Jan Kloosterboer with Anthos and Erik Lommerse with Nord Lommerse.
Erik Lommerse with Dutch export company Nord Lommerse Flower Bulb Group, member of event organizer Royal Anthos, explained the Flower Bulb Day is organized annually - although of course, it got canceled last year due to the pandemic. The event is hosted in San Francisco because of the great spring weather, something that proved to be a great choice last Saturday again as the sun shined bright, allowing for an even greater splash of color on the city's Union Square. "The Flower Bulb Day is organized just before March 8th, as Women's Day is not celebrated big here, but we do believe there's a possibility for this day to get more popular", Erik explained. The American consumer often focuses on special holidays to buy flowers: Valentines and Mother’s Day for example are popular flower moments already.
Photos by Tim van Etten - www.at10.nl
Flower Bulb Day brings both European starting material and local production under the attention: the bulbs are Dutch and are grown in California, by local grower Sun Valley. "Local production is a big item in the North American market", Erik says, adding that both the US and the Canadian market import more bulbs year after year.
The event is the US equivalent of the Dutch National Tulip Day, when consumers are invited to the Dam Square in Amsterdam to pick their own flowers. Just like normal years in the Netherlands - this year the event was altered because of the pandemic - it was a huge success in San Francisco. Thousands of people queued up and waited up until two hours in line to harvest their free flowers. The tulips appeared all over the city and social media flooded with posts showing the bright colors of the tulips picked on Union Square.
Below are more pictures of the day:
For more information
Flower Bulb Day
https://flowerbulbday.com/
Royal Anthos
https://www.anthos.org/
iBulb
https://ibulb.org/