Keukenhof Gardens: Netherlands' flowers with pulling powers

Perhaps more than any other European nation, the Netherlands is a place of iconic, tangible cliche: windmills, clogs, tolerance of narcotics and prostitution, canals, life at or below sea level, herring sandwiches, superior cheese, avid cyclists… You can see all of those things within a couple of hours of landing in Amsterdam, but, historically at least, nothing is quite as popular as the beloved tulip.

How and why the flower came be so inextricably linked with a nation in which it is not native is at the heart of Deborah Moggach's book Tulip Fever, which will this year be turned into a Hollywood film. Starring Dane DeHaan and Alicia Vikander as two-star crossed lovers, their affair takes place in 1630s, during the height of the tulip boom. Director Justin Chadwick will have had to add little in the way of special effects to recreate the city as it was in the 17th century, so well preserved is its gorgeous centre.

"Fashionable men and women stroll along its streets and the canals mirror back the handsome houses in which they live," wrote Moggach to describe the Amsterdam of her novel, but also the city of today. "The city is threaded with mirrors. They reflect the cold spring sunshine. Copper-coloured clouds lie motionless beneath the bridges. The city sees itself in its own water like a woman gazing into a looking-glass."

In spring, tulips fill boxes outside of bars and restaurants, their intense petals turned towards the sun alongside the faces of the surrounding residents emerging after a deep winter. On street-level in Amsterdam you can see tulips everywhere, but the natural destination for anyone with a love of the flowers is the enormous Keukenhof estate, half an hour to the west.

Over 7 million flowers are planted there every year, yet even before getting there, fields appear as though God has spilt paint. Tulips bloom, but so too do daffodils, hyacinth and roses.

Inside Keukenhof, visitors quickly learn that the classic idea of a tulip as a bright red wine-glass is no more representative than an Alsatian is of all dogs. If some of the tulips look unnatural, that's because they are. Centuries of selective cultivation have emphasised some pretty freaky characteristics. Some look dainty, others durable; one frayed, another fabulous. The Paris Sweets look like ersatz lettuce. The hue of orange in Okura appears oversaturated, as though carrying too much data for the human eye. The Wonder Clubs look like several flowers stuck together, none of which are tulips.