TULIPS OF KEUKENHOF

I spent a day at Keukenhof today.  The park is only open two months each year when the tulips bloom.  This week is the absolute peak of genus tulipa, tulips.

I will run out of superlatives, for the tulips here are magical...and add any ten words you wish.  There are 3,000 registered versions of this flower, with 109-150 species.  Keukenhof must have almost all of them:

It was cloudy half the time, sunny 30% and rainy 20%.  In a way I'm glad it was wet now and then because this forced me to go indoors, where, it turns out, there were exhibitions of orchids and anthuriums (better than anything I've seen in Hawaii):

Azaleas's (I'm into yellow flowers):

I was shocked to see virtually every color of azalea.  However, the only blue tulip I saw was a piece of artwork:

And there really are also no truly black tulip.  This is the closest I viewed:

It is called the T. Paul Scherer.  The Queen of the Night is similar, but both are a very dark purple.

Interestingly enough, there were also cherry blossom trees in bloom:

There certainly were swans:

When the bus returned to Amsterdam, I noticed within a few yards in the canal a swan nest:

Tomorrow, Floriade, a floral event that happens only every ten years.

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