Our Story
As a 4th generation bulbgrower, daffodil blood has always been running through my veins. My great-grandfather was a pioneering grower of tulips, hyacinths and daffodils and one of the first in our region to start growing bulbs in the sandy soils. When my grandfather took over, the nursery was expanded with crocuses and later also lilies were added by my father and uncle. I started helping out at a very young age and have always loved the nursery life.
While choosing a different career path as an airline pilot after finishing secondary education, growing bulbs has always remained a great passion of mine.
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Inspired by Roger and Terry Braithwaite, who gave me the chance to grow their extensive stock, daffodils became an even bigger part of my life.
It has led to the start of my own company,
Flying Colours Daffodils.
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Flying Home
While approaching the coastline, I am starting to peek out from our heated windshields.
“It must be here somewhere…”, I mumble.
While I have flown across my hometown many times in my career, it always remains a bit of a challenge to find our daffodil field.
Our altitude here is usually two or threethousand feet, a perfect height to have a beautiful view on the colourful Dutch fields filled with one of the best things The Netherlands has to offer: Flowers.
We are in the busiest part of our flight; the approach and subsequent landing. Still, there is time to look for a yellow-white patch of land somewhat fifteen nautical miles north-northwest of our landing runway. My copilot is flying our 737 and I am doing the radios this stretch back to Amsterdam.
“There!”
I can clearly spot our nursery now. My colleague is too busy flying, and most probably not as passionate about daffodils as I am…
A couple of minutes later my fellow aviator lands the plane smoothly on runway "1-8 Right" at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport and about one hour after touching down I am driving back home.
There are still a few hours of the afternoon left, so after a quick change of outfits I am heading to the daffodil field which I just overflew to make some crosses, do a bit of weeding or to simply enjoy the flowers for a while.
There is always something to do on the field and after spending quite some hours in the cockpit, it is nice to smell the fragrant daffodils or to stick my hands in the sandy soil for a bit.
While just having a look at one of my seedlings, another Transavia aircraft passes overhead and I realize how lucky I am enjoying these two big passions of mine in one day.