Chapter 12: I bloom just for you
A song for Lisse. How a tulip garden in The Netherlands and a song about bottoming, made me realize I was flower in bloom.
The roommate with the green thumb | De kamergenoot met groene vingers
I cannot care for plants. I’m not exaggerating, ask my ex-roommate LS as the plants in our Graça flat were always on the brink of death until his green thumb intervened.
I admired LS’s love of nature. When we met in 2018, he worked for a municipal green space division (kind of like Parks and Rec). He combated predatory species, examined the impacts of environmental challenges (ie. drought) on urban greenery and implemented systems to mitigate these threats. He has contributed words to publications about urban ecology and plant reproductive systems. Whereas I can kill a cactus.
On our Denmark and Sweden road trip, we went to every garden he could find. As we’d wander, I’d watch him intoxicate himself with the aromas of each plant, listen to him passionately speak about the different species present and cast a little shade at how they were arranged.
So, it’s no surprise he suggested I visit Lisse, Netherlands to see the tulips after attending a concert in Luxembourg in April 2024. Trusting him, I changed my travel plans, skipping Belgium and heading to Keukenhof Gardens in Lisse.
A TLDR history of Keukenhof Gardens | Een korte geschiedenis van de Keukenhof-tuinen
Keukenhof Gardens advertises itself as the “most beautiful spring garden in the world.” It is also the largest in Europe. Here is a history lesson from the website:
Keukenhof dates back to the 15th century. Countess Jacoba van Beieren [Jacqueline of Bavaria] (1401-1436) used 'Keukenduyn' [kitchen dunes] as hunting ground for the kitchen of Teylingen Castle. Keukenhof Castle was built in 1641 and the estate grew to encompass an area of over 200 hectares.
Landscape architects Jan David Zocher and his son Louis Paul Zocher, redesigned the castle gardens in 1857. That park, in the English landscape style, still constitutes the basis of Keukenhof.
In 1949, a group of 20 leading flower bulb growers and exporters came up with the plan to use the estate to exhibit spring-flowering bulbs, signalling the birth of Keukenhof as a spring park. The park opened its gates to the public in 1950 and was an instant success, with 236,000 visitors in the first year alone.
Some other facts about the garden include:
Approx. 7 million bulbs and 1,600 varieties are planted yearly by hand.
It’s only open for eight weeks every year (mid-March to mid-May).
In 2023, it welcomed 1.4 million people with 80 per cent coming from abroad.
It is home to 2,500 trees, representing over 100 species.
A sea of colour | Een zee van kleur
Entering the park was like seeing colour for the first time. I imagined the overwhelming feeling I had was similar to people experiencing colour films in the 1950s. The park was so vibrant, each flower looked as though it was painted and coated multiple times to give it this luminary glow.
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The tulips were perfectly curated, their colours never clashing, but complementing one another. The floral bed designs flowed in rows, wave formations and other shapes that melded with the trees and water. Climbing up the windmill (which dates back to 1892, but has been at Keukenhof since 1957), I got a spectacular view of everything with the only interruption to the picture perfect scene being the windmill blades rotating. I had never experienced so much beauty in my life.
As I walked through the parks, people sat on benches or designated grass areas enjoying a picnic - I recommend bringing as food is expensive. While it felt very touristic on the paths, these designated areas felt calm and I imagined this is where the Dutch relaxed to enjoy the cultural site.
I am a tulip | Ik ben een tulp
This visit resonated with me because I felt like a flower during my year abroad. My whole year was essentially me trying to bloom into this new person. Let me explain it through the lifecycle of a tulip (note the dates are based on my timeline, not those of a tulip).
Planting Time (November): I planted myself in Lisbon on November 30, 2023.
Making Roots (December): This was the first 30 days I described in Chapter 10: How a street artist helped me fit in. It’s when I started venturing out and growing my base of people.
Cooling Period (December - January): During Christmas/New Year’s I rested as the people I started building relationships with departed Lisbon for the season and the places I visited were closed for the holidays.
Growing Period (January - March): My lifestyle was changing. I was more confident. I met new people. I gained additional perspectives and outlooks on life.
Blooming Time (March - November): I started blooming on my birthday in March. I had a joint party with my birthday twin who invited his community of over two years and I had invited mine from the past few months. I didn’t think my growing period end as I thought no one would show up. Then Luís, Emily, Jess, Laurent, Filipe and Garrett walked in. Each time a familiar face hugged me I felt a new pedal of mine blooming. I didn’t fully bloom on my birthday though. I don’t think I entered my final stage until the very end.
Being at Keukenhof and seeing tulips in the various blooming stages was like seeing the different stages of my journey in Europe, with the ultimate goal of being in full bloom. Their colours represented the people and places and that coloured my life and seeing the endless rows of flowers from the top of that windmill made me realize there were more adventures on the horizon and that the possibilities were unlimited.
A song by a blooming twink | Een liedje van een bloeiende twink
Australian singer-songwriter, actor and famed gay twink icon, Troye Sivan, released Bloom in 2015. The song has been called a “ode to bottoming,” and while I explored bottoming as part of my bloom in 2024, it’s not why I chose this song for the city. I truly believe it represents my visit to Lisse and my growth. Here are some lyrics that stick out to me in the song and my innocent interpretations:
Take a trip into my garden, I've got so much to show ya: I had friends visiting in the following weeks and wanted to show them how much I had bloomed in my four months abroad.
Now it's the perfect season, yeah, let's go for it this time: It took me until spring to truly begin blooming into my fabulous new form.
We're dancing with the trees, and I've waited my whole life: I’ve always wanted to live abroad and waited my whole life. There was also a lot of dancing to celebrate this, especially at Keukenhof where I danced under the tree to a draaiorgel (or Dutch Barrel Organ).
Yeah, I bloom, I bloom just for you, I bloom, yeah, just for you: Yes this is a bottom telling his top he is accepting every inch (length and girth), but for me it is more innocent. Everyday in my first few months, I looked in the mirror and reminded myself that I was on this adventure to grow into a more confident person with a global perspective. I’d say to my reflection “I’m doing this for you…for us.”
Listen to the playlist on Spotify.
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