Spring in the Netherlands - A Hackberry Farm Nature Photography Workshops Field Report

It’s misty outside, but here we are in a place I’d never imagined I’d be: a Dutch brown bar in Delft’s city center.  Inside here, our guests laugh with one another while we sip cappuccino and tell stories.  We’ve been on the move all week during our nature photography workshop, so this pause is a welcome respite.  Just a short distance away, the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) towers nearly 400 feet over the town’s market square.  This church, adorned with Gothic architecture, has watched over this old Dutch city for almost seven centuries.  Even for a neophyte on things historic or religious, it’s not hard to understand why this building is special.  

Tulips in bloom.

Under the spire, preparations are being made for Saturday’s Koningsdag (King’s Day) Celebration. King’s Day is a celebration of the Netherlands’ Monarchy, and on it, the whole country and its citizens are adorned in orange. It’s quite a spectacle to behold.

Just about an hour ago, we were in the main factory that produces Delftware. Delftware or Delft blue pottery is a general term for a style of earthenware popularized here in the late 1500s. Its color and style are now synonymous with the finest pottery in the world.  

In the Netherlands, there’s so much to see.

Keukenhof Gardens

Millions of tulips adorn a field.

Cheese maker explaining the process.

Old church, Monnickendam, Netherlands.

The star of this show, however, is the tulips. Even when I was flying into Amsterdam, I could see the fields below adorned in color. Seeing the flowers from the air is one thing, but experiencing them while walking around in a field early in the morning takes the experience to a whole new level.

Each year, farmers across this tiny country plant billions of tulip bulbs.  A seasonal crop, these flowers emerge during a small window of time each April.  During this time, the fields erupt with colors - some of which you may have never seen in nature.  

Water droplets on a tulip bulb.

Rows of tulips in a field.

Tulips in bloom.

Tulips at sunset.

The Netherlands grows more than half of all commercially produced tulips worldwide each year, and our days are spent visiting farms, learning about the tulip-growing process through interactive experiences, and taking in a unique culture that has influenced life in the United States and other parts of the world.  

As we travel around the country, we take in iconic scenes like the immense Dutch windmills and the old architecture in cities like Amsterdam, Monnickendam, The Hague, Haarlem, and Hoorn. We visit cheesemakers, enjoy cheese and wine tastings, see the process by which the iconic Dutch wooden shoes are produced, and visit a dairy where we watch the farmer milk his cows.

Perhaps one of our most moving experiences was standing mere feet away from some of the most famous works of art humankind has ever known.  When you study the most famous artists in history, most of the ones a layperson can name are Dutch.  Names like Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Van Gogh still invade our consciousness when we think of fine art.  We are merely feet away from the immense Rembrandt painting The Night Watch, Van Gogh’s self-portrait, or the small and demure portrait of the Girl with the Pearl Earring by Vermeer.

A myriad of colors in a tulip field.

These works of art make me glad that people saw the beauty in them and preserved them all this time.

Each day and every minute of the trip was filled with all things Dutch. The country is beautiful, and so are the Dutch people. They are immensely friendly and welcoming, whether we are enjoying a local restaurant or taking a tour. Dutch tradition is one of order and meticulousness.

Those traits are embodied in perhaps tulip culture’s most famous attraction:  Keukenhof Gardens.  Touted as the world’s most beautiful spring gardens, it is also one of the world’s largest flower gardens.  Keukenhof is about 80 acres of meticulously manicured flower gardens featuring a dizzying variety of tulips in more shapes and colors than you could ever imagine.  Although smaller in numbers, hyacinths and daffodils also get their due here.  I’m not exaggerating when I say you could spend a whole day here.  Every turn and path leads you to a new and inspiring palette of colors created by something as ephemeral as flowers.  This place is a delight for photographers and non-photographers alike, and it’s no wonder it’s one of the Netherlands’ top attractions.

Windmill and a polder full of tulips.

I could go on and on about the country, the kindness of its people, or the beauty of the farm fields, but at some point, that becomes an exercise in redundancy.  The fact is that I could go on - the region has so much depth and richness, and we’ve only scratched the surface of all this incredible country offers.

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We’re already planning our 2026 Spring in the Netherlands excursion.  If you are interested in joining us and being among the first to hear when registration opens, send us a note.

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