When the springtime comes to Holland,

When the fragrant tulips grow,

It is like a spot from Heaven,

Just transported here below…

In 1915, Dave Radford penned these words to Richard A. Whiting’s melody, “It’s Tulip Time in Holland.” More than a century later, the tulip fields still bloom like painted dreams, stretching wide and wild from mid-March to early May. Join me for a half-day journey through this breathtaking spectacle: trace the tulip’s winding path through Dutch history, and lose yourself in the living poetry of Keukenhof, the crown jewel of Europe’s spring gardens.

The story of the tulip is one of my dearest. It weaves together beauty and resilience, memory and renewal. To me, the tulip is more than a flower. It is the perfect emblem of the immigrant: rooted elsewhere, but blooming here. Bright. Elegant. Delicate. Yet still unafraid.