Haarlem - Bulb Growing

Haarlem is famed as a great bulb growing center, producing tulips, hyacinths, crocuses and daffodils which are dispatched all over the world. The tulip came to the Netherlands from Asia Minor by way of Austria at the end of the 15th century, and in the following century gave rise to a "tulip mania" during which extraordinary prices were paid for choice bulbs. A century later there was a similar craze for hyacinths.