Attracting some 20,000 visitors to the Dutch capital, National Tulip Day, held this year on the 18th of January, celebrated the start of the tulip season with a generous spring flower display on Amsterdam’s Museumplein.

In a giant picking garden, visitors enjoy the scenery adorned with some 200,000 tulips, in various colours, from which they can pick tulips to take home. Set up by members of the Dutch tulip promotion association (TPN), the event supports as well promotes the sector.

The Netherlands is the world’s largest producer of tulips – totalling around 375 growers whom, collectively will produce more than 1.7 billion tulips this season. The UK, Germany, France and Poland the main export destinations, importing tulips until the season’s end around mid-May.

Reflecting on the celebrations in Amsterdam, tulip grower and TPN chairman Arjan Smit, said: “Even though we have been celebrating the National Tulip Day with a picking garden in Amsterdam since 2012, it’s still amazing to see all those people with big smiles on their faces. In times of great tension and uncertainty in the world, it is fantastic to create altogether such a positive, cheerful atmosphere with tulips.”