Bollenstreek

The Bollenstreek (from bol, "bulb") is the 13km/8mi long stretch of land between Haarlem and Sassenheim (north of Leiden) with its great expanses of bulb-fields (over 2,600 hectares/6,500 acres). The show of flowers begins with the first crocuses in mid March, followed by daffodils, hyacinths and tulips.

In the second half of the 16th century the Austrian ambassador in Turkey, Ogier Ghislain de Busbecq, brought back a quantity of tulip bulbs and presented some of them to Charles de l'Ecluse (Carolus Clusius), who took the bulbs to Leiden in 1593 and grew tulips on the sandy heathland on the inland side of the dunes.

He was so successful that during the first half of the 17th century a real "tulip mania" developed, and fortunes were spent on buying new varieties. The States-General put an end to this speculation by ordinances issued around 1636. Nowadays over 14,000 hectares/35,000 acres of land are still devoted to bulb-growing.