Today the Netherlands produces billions of flower bulbs each year (of which two thirds are exported worldwide).The business of growing flower bulbs began almost 400 years ago.

The first Dutch flower bulbs grew in Leiden, in the botanical garden of the university. They were planted there by Carolus Clusius, a scientist who wrote the first major book on tulips in 1592. Leiden was the first bulb region of the Netherlands, but initially the tulips did not leave Clusius's botanical garden. Only after a theft cultivation could spread.

Once, the value of tulips was enormous. They were imported to the Netherlands from Turkey in the mid-16th century and gradually seized the passions of rich Dutchmen. In the Dutch Golden Age tulips became popular in paintings and festivals; tulip collecting amongst the elites became a popular pastime. In the mid-17th century, tulips were so popular that they created the first economic bubble, known as "Tulip Mania" (tulipomania). As people bought up bulbs, they became so expensive that they were used as money until the market in them crashed. But the Netherlands is still the centre for the trade of flowers and bulbs.