lupins

You’ve seen them towering like elegant, colorful fireworks along Dutch roadsides, and now you can actually pick them yourself. That’s right: lupins — those gorgeous, pea-like flower spikes in shades of purple, pink, white, and yellow — are waiting for you at several pick-your-own farms across the Netherlands, mainly from May to July. No need to be a seasoned gardener; just bring a pair of scissors, a bucket with a little water, and a sense of adventure.

The Picking Experience
Grab your friends or kids and wander between the rows. Lupins are tall and sturdy, so you can easily spot your favorites. Choose stems where most of the lower flowers are open but the very tip still has a few buds — that means they’ll last longer in a vase. Cut the spike at the base with scissors, at an angle, and pop it straight into your bucket. It’s oddly satisfying, like gathering a handful of magic wands. The stems are sturdy but the flowers bruise easily, so handle them gently, and cut only what you need: a lupin does not grow new flowers on a cut stem.

At Home: Decoration Ideas
Lupins are showstoppers in a tall, clear vase — no need for filler greens. Remove the lower leaves, change the water regularly, and they will last five to seven days. Mix several colors together for a joyful, wild bouquet, or go monochrome for a more sophisticated look. Want to be extra? Float a few individual flowerlets (plucked from the stem) in shallow bowls of water as table centerpieces.

Not for the kitchen
Lupin flowers are not edible, and the seeds and leaves are toxic to pets, so keep your bouquets out of reach of curious cats and dogs.

Enjoy your lupin adventure — from field to vase!

Bloementuin Plukgeluk

flowers

limburg

Bloementuin Plukgeluk in Bingelrade is a pick-your-own flower garden where you cut your own bouquets from late May to mid-October. The two-hectare field grows around 150 varieties of flowers without chemical pesticides, so the selection changes as the season progresses. Early in the season you find spring bloomers like cornflowers, larkspur and lupins; later the summer flowers take over. At the entrance you take a bucket and scissors. A standard bunch of about 25 stems costs €17.50, but you can pick more or less. The garden is wheelchair-accessible, with accessible parking and entrance. You can pay by card.

Pluktuin ut ouw goed

fruit, vegetables, flowers, berries, nuts

noord-brabant

Pluktuin Ut Ouw Goed in De Moer is a pick-your-own flower and fruit farm set on the site of a former tree nursery. The farm grows a wide variety of flowers, including peonies, lavender, anemones, marguerites, lupins and sunflowers, as well as field and dried flowers. You can pick your own bouquet for €5 or more. The flower fields are tended by Fien van Laarhoven, one of the owners. The farm also has a food forest with apples, pears, apricots, nectarines, peaches, persimmons, cherries, raspberries, redcurrants, blueberries, grapes and blackberries, along with nut trees. The fruit season runs from early summer to autumn, depending on the crop.