Summer Bulb Harvest News
Hello, growers. We’re checking in with some updates and news about bulb harvests this summer in The Netherlands.
No doubt, you’ve heard about the deadly heat waves that swept Europe this summer. We don’t have environmental events like this without seeing a substantial affect on crops. Tulips and other bulbs were not immune.
High heat early in the summer prevented some of last year’s smaller bulbs from being able to take up the energy they need to grow into larger bulbs. Physically, the extreme heat forces the plants into dormancy early. Their foliage dies back and the bulbs hunker down in the earth in a sort of “survival mode”. Without their foliage and with warm ground temps and drought, they aren’t able to increase in size before the bulb harvest at the end of the summer.
This means that bulb farmers face some difficult decisions at harvest time. Not only do they lose sales of their larger bulbs, but they also have to decide if they should release some of the (still) smaller bulbs for sale, when they know those bulbs might be needed for next year’s larger bulb sales.
What does this all mean for us growers in the US?
It means we’ll see more shortages and substitutions than last year. And, in the case of tulips, we’ll all be working with some size 11/12 instead of all 12+, because these are the bulbs that are available.
What is Ampersand doing to protect you?
As always:
We’re working with our suppliers to secure high quality substitutions.
We’re making sure that our shipping containers are coming to the US full, so that we will have the same quantity of bulbs for our customers and so that the cost of shipping does not go up for you. We have to pay to ship the whole containers, so if there is empty space, that means the price per bulb for shipping has to go up.
We have a lineup of bulbs reserved for our customers that we have not listed, in order to support the substitution process as best we can.
We’ll work with you to choose those substitutions. We won’t send you any surprises, unless you tell us you’d like our experts here to choose the best replacements for you based on color, bloom time (early, mid, late blooming), style of flower (single, double, parrot, fringed, etc), and cooling treatment. If you want us to choose for you, drop us your details in the form below. 😀
Please know:
Our goal is to make sure you’re able to meet your own customers’ needs. We know that the word “shortage” can make growers nervous. We understand. We’ve been there. We’ve been shorted by other bulb companies as farmers, without the opportunity to choose replacements. That’s just one of the many reasons we built Ampersand.
Please review our required substitutions policy before you consider ordering more bulbs than you may need. Over-ordering leaves us holding bulbs we can’t sell at the last minute and prevents other growers from finding the bulbs they want. It’s not necessary when you work with Ampersand.
What happens next?
As the bulbs are inspected and packed in The Netherlands, we expect there to be a few more changes made to the orders we’ve already been working on with our suppliers this summer. We’re waiting until we have the ship manifests in hand to start the substitution process in order streamline communication for us and you.
If there are varieties on your order that have been affected by a shortage, we’ll reach out to you to seek your input for substitutions. If you would like to fast track the process and allow our team to choose substitutions for you, please submit the short form below.
If you want to choose your own subs, do not send this form.
😀 Send a request for the Ampersand Team to choose substitutions for you:
We appreciate your business and loyalty. Please let us know if you have any questions.
