THEIR NAME is Koeman, just like Holland’s national soccer team coach. Petra and Pieter Koeman who once again have experienced a successful U-Pick season. U-Pick is a field where you pick your own tulips, just above Dallas. It’s open for only a few weeks, due to the tulips’ short blooming time. So if you want to fill your vase in Texas, you got only from early February to mid-March. And people do come! They come in droves.
The Koemans named their company Texas Tulips. And there’s no long tradition here. While tulips may have a centuries-long tradition in Holland, the Koeman family has been living in Texas for not all that long. Father Piet and mother Afra grew tulips in Holland, with an innovative plastic blanket covering the bulbs, so that they bloomed two weeks before the competition. Boatloads were auctioned off in Aalsmeer, it was good business.
But Dad died young, and the children decided to take a gamble in Texas, where the combination of soil and climate proved perfect. Pieter used to watch Dallas on TV, so it felt a bit like coming home. The popularity of their flowers caught on immediately.
As soon as the Koeman family started planting row after row of bulbs, with spring approaching, Texan people came, like in Field of Dreams. No wonder: 90 different varieties of tulips, some with smart names. Texas Gold, Texas Frame, American Dream.
The latter has come true for the Koemans, big-time.
