The last few months have been strange, stressful and scary for most people on the planet, but there have been plenty of attempts to keep our spirits high. Broadway plays are being live streamed, millions of books have been made free to read, gyms have taken their fitness classes online and brands are sharing iconic recipes for us to try at home.
Now, a farmer in the Netherlands has attempted to buoy us up by writing a message of hope in his tulip fields.
The field has been turned into a enormous, uplifting work of art, with the words #staystrong and an image of a hand holding two tulips being cut into the blooms.
The farm has also named their new type of tulip ‘Stay Strong’. The name of the two-tone yellow and red tulip, which is currently brightening up a fields in Noordoostpolder, Flevoland, was inspired by recent events – and the flower was officially christened by Jenny Green, a nurse who works in the intensive care ward of an Amsterdam hospital.
Green ‘baptised’ the flower by pouring champagne into a vase of the blooms, while surrounded by the colourful tulips.
The Netherlands, which is famously covered in technicolour fields of tulips this time of year, has already been cheering us up with beautiful images of a deserted tulip garden and more messages of hope written with flowers in the country’s abandoned fields.
You can buy ‘Stay Strong’ tulip bulbs from the farm to plant in your own garden or windowsill pot. Five Euros from every order will also go to charity Doctors Without Borders. Find out more here.
Love all things floral? Check out these photos of spring flowers blooming all over the world