While
studying in France in 1979, I visited Holland’s Keukenhof Gardens, southwest of
Amsterdam just outside the little town of Lisse, with friends. It is the largest bulb flower park in the world and I promised myself I
would return one day with Joe. My personal pledge was at long last fulfilled on
our Gap Year stop in the lovely land of tulips.
Flowers
make me happy. I like being near them, planting them, nurturing them (I
inherited my Dad’s penchant for gardening, or maybe it was the hours I spent puttering
around the yard as a child with him) and I love to simply look at them. I take
the expression, “Stop and smell the roses,” as not just a metaphorical
suggestion to slow down but as literal counsel to behold, sniff and delight in
blossoms wherever I can find them. Now that spring has arrived, I couldn’t wait
to return to Keukenhof (Dutch for kitchen garden), in my opinion one of the most beautiful places on earth, with its
full palette of tulips and jonquils, daffodils and hyacinths, in full splendor.
The garden features blooms from more
than seven million hand-planted bulbs that burst into a kaleidoscope of color
for just two months a year, from mid-March to mid-May. In many instances, memory
tends to magnify, but such was not the case with my recollections of the
beautiful spring gardens I’d experienced over 30 years ago. The gently rolling
landscape blanketed in patterns of flowery color and scented with their perfume
was as delightful as I’d remembered. Towering beech trees filtered the sunlight
and blossoming fruit trees lining the footpaths around the central ponds provided
delicate whites and pinks that offset the swaths of ground level brilliance. After
a several hour visit, Joe agreed that yes, Keukenhof was indeed a charming, beautiful
sanctuary and even though he will never be able to distinguish a narcissus from
a rose, now believes that flowers can indeed make one happy.
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