General
The Netherlands is well known for tulips all over the world. Off course tulips aren't the only flower you can find in The Netherlands. Each year several events are held to showcase all these flowers.
Keukenhof
Keukenhof is the most known flower exhibition in The Netherlands. Since 1951 this annual event is held between March and May. It is located in the small town of Lisse about 35 km south west of Amsterdam. Every year around one million visitors come to see 7 million bulb flowers on a terrain of 32 hectares.
Buses run from Leiden station and Schiphol airport to the Keukenhof.
Floriade
Floriade was an international garden festival and exhibition, organized by the Nederlandse Tuinbouwraad (NTR, Dutch Horticultural Council). The festival was held every 10 years on a different location in the Netherlands. The festival was open to public from April to October.
Floriade welcomed more than 2 million visitors in 2012 to the event with exhibitions from 42 countries. In 2022 Floriade the number of vistors dropped to only 685 thousand.
The first edition was held in 1960 in Rotterdam. 2022 was the last edition of Floriade. The repeating huge financial losses were the main reason. Another reason was that the form of the exhibition was deemed old-fashioned.
The organizing Dutch Horticultural Council was dissolved in 2024.
| year | location |
|---|---|
| 1960 | Rotterdam |
| 1972 | Amsterdam |
| 1982 | Amsterdam |
| 1992 | Zoetermeer |
| 2002 | Haarlemmermeer |
| 2012 | Venlo |
| 2022 | Almere |
Westfriese Flora
Westfriese Flora was an annual bulb flower event between 1933 and 1999 held in Bovenkarspel, The Netherlands. In 1999 32 people died due to legionnaires' disease caused by water vapour from a bubble bath.
The festival was renamed Holland Flowers Festival in 2002.
Holland Flowers Festival
Holland Flowers Festival was the continuation of the Westfriese Flora between 2002 and 2011. It was held on several locations. Only in the last year the event was no longer held in the Westfrisian area.
| year | location |
|---|---|
| 2002-2003 | Bovenkarspel |
| 2004-2010 | Zwaagdijk-Oost |
| 2011 | Middenmeer |
