By: KARNJANA KARNJANATAWE
Published: 26/02/2009 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: Horizons
The midday sun was almost unbearable but the thousands of visitors present last weekend didn't mind queuing up in the heat just to watch tulip flowers at Suan Tulip Non in Nonthaburi, a province neighbouring Bangkok.
Anybody wishing to have their photos taken in this tulip decorated zone has to pay 150 baht.
The tulip garden sits in Soi Chaengwattana 28 next to the Central Department Store. The flowers are grown in a greenhouse on a two rai plot that belongs to U&V Inter-Trade, a wine and food importing company.
"The idea to plant tulips came to us two years ago when we invited our partner from Israel to the Royal Flora Ratchaphruek 2006 (in Chiang Mai). We observed that Thais were crazy about tulips," said Sorasak Mudpongtua, a coordinator at Suan Tulip Non. Our partner asked why didn't we grow tulips ourselves, just as they (Israelis) did in their country.
A prop for picture taking outside the tulip greenhouse.
U&V Inter-Trade heeded its partner's advice and expanded its product line. It brought 80,000 tulip bulbs from the Netherlands in 2007 and turned part of its car park into a greenhouse.
"We planted the first seeds in October 2007 and they bore flowers around January. We used the flowers to decorate our office (located in front of the garden). When our customers saw it they wondered why we had bought such expensive flowers to decorate our office. But when we told we grew them here, they wouldn't believe us and asked for proof," Sorasak said.
Negrita
The following day one of the customers posted several photographs of tulips from his garden and all relevant information on Pantip.com, a popular Thai web site. The message spread like wild fire and inspired people from all parts of the country to visit the tulip garden.
Sorasak remembered that last year there was a group from Ayutthaya that showed up at four o'clock in the morning just to see the flowers. This year, one of the visitors came all the way from Surat Thai, almost 650 kilometres south of Bangkok.
White hyacinth, pink and red cyclamen and orange begonia.
"We planted tulips in an open space and gave it a roof for shade. We sprayed water to keep temperature down to 25 degrees Celsius," he said. That was last year. Only 30 per cent of the flowers survived. This year the planting technique was fine-tuned. The roof gave way to a big plastic tent (12x8 metres) with sliding doors and temperature controlled to 16-22 degrees Celsius.
Orange Queen
Once you step inside the greenhouse, you immediately catch the sweet fragrance of hyacinths, but tulips have very faint odour. The tulips were planted in plastic pots arranged in neat stacks. This year the company brought around 100,000 tulip bulbs representing 15 species such as Orange Queens, bright purple Negritas, fire-engine red and golden yellow Parades, and Ad Rems whose petals have orange and yellow margins.
Ile de France
The flowers are not allowed to bloom at the same time. "We stagger and slow the blooming process so different colours of tulips can bloom at different times over a two-month period," he said.
Visitors are not allowed to touch flowers for they are delicate, but they can take pictures without using the camera flash. "This Valentine's Day, some visitors didn't heed signs urging them not to use the flash. Their ignorance left me sick and sad," he said. The result is that petals of many red tulips have shrivelled up, as if they are about to die.
Leen van de Mark
"We don't charge visitors any entrance fee. What we ask for is only their cooperation," he said. "When see people happy, it makes us feel proud."
In the future Sorasak hopes to develop tulip species that can grow in hot and humid conditions native to Thailand.
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