Radio show opens vote for national flower of the Netherlands
The Netherlands doesn’t have a national flower. The Vroege Vogels radio show wants to change this and is holding a vote. Experts from Leiden University helped draw up the longlist.
Update: the shortlist has been announced
The first round of voting for the Dutch national flower has now closed and there are still five candidates left: the dandelion, the daisy, the wild fritillary, the cow parsley and the cuckoo flower.
Almost every country has a national flower, except for the Netherlands, that is. Austria has the edelweiss, Belgium the poppy and the Finns the lily of the valley.
You’d be forgiven for wondering whether the tulip isn’t our national flower. But according to the radio show it’s not. The tulip is the national flower of Turkey and Hungary. High time, therefore, to choose our own.
Experts from Leiden University have helped draw up a longlist of flowers to choose from. Norbert Peeters (a botanical philosopher at Studium Generale Leiden), Rogier van Vugt (head of horticulture at Hortus botanicus) and Esmée Winkel (a botanical artist at Hortus Botanicus) all chose flowers that grow in the wild in the Netherlands ‘of their own accord’. The daisy, the dandelion and cow parsley, for instance. The tulip isn’t on the list because it doesn’t originally come from the Netherlands.
You have until Friday 12 May to vote for your favourite flower on the longlist. The shortlist will be announced on 14 May and the national flower itself will be announced in Vroege Vogels on 4 June.