Fri 29 Jun 2012

Keukenhof Park Flower Show

Keukenhof is an annual flower show which takes place in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The park is situated in Lisse, just south of Amsterdam. Each year the park is bursting with all different coloured flowers. It takes place in the spring of each year. The flower show this year celebrated its 63rd show in terrific style.

A total of 875,000 guests from all over the world visited the park during the flower show. More than 80% of the visitors were from abroad with the most numbers coming from Germany, Britain, America and Asia. Most of the visitors from abroad came by coach and more than 10,000 coaches arrived at the park.

Park officials did worry that the cool spring temperatures might affect some of the flowers but the garden was in full bloom right up to and including the last day.

This years main attraction was the giant flower mosaic of Chopin. This attracted many visitors as expected and at night there were Chopin concerts which added an extra dimension to the theme.

In 2009 the Flower show celebrated its 60th anniversay. During the show over 7 million flower bulbs were planted. It commemorated the fact that 400 years ago, Henry Hudson discovered the isle of Manhattan and named it New Amsterdam. The name later changed to New York. A flower mosaic which included more than 25,000 flower bulbs depicted the Statue of Liberty.

The park will reopen again for three days during the National flower bulb market between the 19th October to the 21st October 2012.

The 2013 show is open from 21 March to 20 May. The theme for 2013 is the United Kingdom. The UK is an important market for the export of Dutch flower bulbs and cut flowers. More important the United Kingdom is a tourist market with over 8% of total visitors to the park coming from the UK.

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