Large crowds at the tulip picking garden on Museumplein

In the radiant sun, an estimated 18,000 people picked a bunch of tulips on the Museumplein in Amsterdam this afternoon.

As part of National Tulip Day, the start of the season, growers had ‘planted’ about 200,000 tulips on the square to give away. The tulips were all picked in no time.

At the start of the event, three-time skating champion Irene Schouten christened a light pink tulip. That flower is not named after Schouten, but has been given the name ‘Dutch Pearl’, a reference to the painting ‘The girl with a pearl earring’ by Johannes Vermeer, reports AT5/NH News.

‘The girl with a pearl earring’ normally hangs in the Mauritshuis in The Hague, but this spring will temporarily move to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam because there will be a retrospective exhibition with the work of the 17th-century master.

It is no coincidence that Irene Schouten was asked to come to Amsterdam. She is the daughter of a tulip grower. “She was born among tulips, because her family was and is also in tulips. As a skater, she has the perseverance that we as growers should also have,” says Arjan Smit, organizer of the Tulip Day.

It was the first time that the growers were on the Museumplein. Before corona, the annual picking garden was on Dam Square, but it became too small for the event. Two years ago it was canceled due to corona, last year André van Duin handed out tulips named after himself from a tour boat in Amsterdam.