Holland in Tulip Time (1934)

• 63%
• 1934
• Documentary
• Ruth FitzPatrick

Although this travelogue of Holland in springtime goes to the below sea level fishing village of Volendam, where adults and children dress in the same styled traditional clothes, and the metropolis and capital city of Amsterdam, the center of the global diamond trade, it is the cultivation of flowering spring bulbs which is the focus. No other country is as renowned for bulb cultivation as Holland. These bulbs are most specifically tulips and hyacinths. When in bloom, the bulbs provide a magnificent flush of color to the farming landscape. As there is demand for rare species, much work is placed into developing new cultivars, as evidenced by the production of a black flowering tulip, once thought impossible. It takes five years to bring a bulb to a stage where it can be sold commercially, that process which includes removing the flower at its maturity each spring so that all the energy of the plant can be put into the bulb instead of the flower production. The flower petals have no commercial value, but still provide a magnificent display of color in being discarded.