Hi, I know the tulip season is in the spring i.e. March thru May.
However I have a good friend who wants to see tulips - and my naïve question
is are tulips anywhere in the Netherlands in Mid June - Late August?
i.e. indoors, museums. thinking outside the box etc.

I have told my friend if she is limited to Europe in the summer, she might want to plan to visit tulips somewhere in the States... which may be "closer" during the actual tulip growing time.

Never hurts to ask, though, for those who know the Netherlands.

The other paradigm I'd like to address is: " when you go to Europe from the States, you MUST spend 10 days." What is the shortest enjoyable trip someone has done ? i.e. couldn't my friend go for a long weekend (from the East Coast) around tulip time, if that was the goal? vs. 10 days. Shorter is not optimal, but if it is to achieve one bucket list item, why not?

thanks for your comments
i.e.

I have been there several times, but personally, I sure would not fly to Europe for a weekend to see the tulips in The Netherlands because of the cost and jet lag being too much to enjoy it.

Does your friend know about Holland, Michigan? It is now one of the major tulip growing areas in the world and there is a big tulip festival there every year. This year it is April 16 - May 4. It is beautiful! Look it up on line and see what you think.

As an aside, your friend might enjoy the book: Tulip Fever. It is a novel set in the Netherlands during the tulip craze when fortunes rose and fell on the purchase of a single bulb. I found it interesting enough that I have read it several times.

You won't find tulip fields in bloom after early to mid May depending on the spring.

You can of course find cut tulips, but nothing like during tulip season.

It's like the leaves in Vermont in the fall...you can't go in the spring to see them!

I believe that Ottowa Canada and a town in Washington state also have tulip festivals. Might try googling them.

I was a teacher and summer was my only time to travel. My lifelong wish had been tulip time in Holland and I went the first year I had retired. It was worth the wait!

great suggestions! thank you!!

Washington state has masses of tulip fields.

No tulips bloom that late. They are strictly a spring flower.

There is a big tulip festival in Albany, NY and the biggest one in N America is in Ottawa, I believe, in May.

http://tulipfestival.ca/

When I was in Amsterdam one April and saw the tulips fields between Haarlem and Lisse (Keukenhof) in full bloom I was sorely disappointed to fail to find any significant numbers of tulips in Amsterdam it self - not like at home where in April they are everywhere - don't the Dutch like tulips that much or was I, as usual, missing the proverbial boat?

Here is a link to the tulips near us in Washington State that Hetismij2 mentioned. http://www.tulipfestival.org/

And how many of you know that tulips actually originated in Turkey?

I knew it, but did not until I went to Turkey and read about them there.

does anyone know that the quest for the black tulip is of yet unfulfilled even though Dutch horticultural whizzes have been trying for eons to make one - pure black - no color - some look nearly black but are not. Or have I missed the boat, as usual, as not kept up with the tulipculture in Holland?

Tulips were also the Bit Coins of Holland when the first few bulbs arrived - being sold for sky-high prices until the market crashed with mass production of bulbs.

During the Nazi occupation folks had to resort to eating tulip bulbs I hear - doe snot sound tasty a'tal!

I didn't know about the Turkish origin of tulips either until I home exchanged in Turkey and learned about it. It was a big surprise to me. Someone who is Turkish told me that the bulbs originally came from somewhere east of Turkey. Who knew?

Wherever they come from, tulips are gorgeous when they bloom everywhere.

doe snot sound tasty a'tal!

I will look for that delicacy on the menus.

If you do end up in Amsterdam rather than Washington or Michigan, the Flower Market (Bloemenmarkt) on the Singel Canal will have cut tulips and bulbs for sale. There's also a Tulip Museum in the Jordaan area if your friend wants to fully immerse herself in all things tulip.

And those bulbs you can buy and bring back may cost more in Holland than back at home - the same bulbs from Holland - check on whether you can import bulbs - agricultural products - into your state - it is possible if the bulbs are packaged and or labelled I believe.