It’s called a floating flower market, but as locals will warn you – that’s not what this is, go with practical expectations – there aren’t many flowers here, it’s a bulb market.

Floating Flower Market – a Misnomer

As our hotel consierge informed us “Let me set your expectations, many tourists are disappointed when they get to the floating flower market, but if you really want to go, by all means check it out.”

What? No flowers? What did he mean?

As we found out for ourselves, though it’s called a floating flower market it’s not flowers being sold on boats – no! It’s actually a bulb market.

Farmer’s Market for Bulbs – Bulb market

Stall after stall of vendors are selling bulbs! Like a Farmer’s Market here you can buy any bulb you want as much as you want. Tulips, amaryllis, iris, peonies, dahlias, allium, anything that is usually sold as bulbs or tubers in our fall and spring time can be bought at this bulb market all year round.

Yes they have flowers – made of plastic and glass 🤔

There were stalls selling what I thought were buckets of fresh flowers – not so! What was fascinating is how all the stalls were selling hundreds of plastic and glass tulips and flowers! The plastic flowers looked so real that I was almost duped into buying a bunch 😄.

Why would people be buying tulips made of glass and flowers made of plastic? I was so perplexed by this observation 🤔. When my daughter Anjali explained that fresh flowers are a luxury in Northern Europe and secondly many tourists were buying the fake flowers to take home as souvenieurs.

Don’t let the photos below fool you. The flowers are not real, they’re all plastic!

Is it a floating market at least?

Nope! It’s called a floating market because all the stalls line the banks of the canal.

Did I bring any bulbs back?

” No Mom! You cannot take any bulbs back!” The family forbade me from bringing any agricultural stuff back 😉 – they didn’t want to get stuck in customs back in the U.S. 😂.

To be honest, we are so spoilt here in America! I noticed all the bulbs sold here in Amsterdam are what I can find back home at our local nurseries in the fall and early spring.

Was it a fun Off the beaten path excursion? Absolutely!

If you have time in between the major sites in Amsterdam check out the flower market, it’s a fun detour along the canal and a window into a local bulb market 💐.

It’s bulb season here in America!

Folks, it’s bulb season here and the nurseries are loaded with flower bulbs from tulips, to daffodils, freesias, iris and more. Stop by the nursery and get some bulbs for fabulous spring flowers 🌷.

Happy Friday!
Go buy some fresh flowers this weekend! It’s an affordable luxury we can all be thankful for 💐🙏🏻🥰!