I have no good pictures for this post - blame GB! She wouldn't allow me to take any of the Dutch girls selling bulbs from Holland because she knew I was up to no good. Picture young tall blond girls with short skirts and thick (fake) Dutch accents. I'm sorry GB but you know good and well those girls were big fakers!
So we walk up to one of the booths at the Chicagoland Flower and Garden Show where there were tons of bulbs for sale. I was all up in the "Japanese Wonder Flowers" being wow'd by their claims of cross pollination producing unusual color combinations. The booth was being manned by 2 tall blond girls and when they started talking I noticed they had accents. Now I don't know what an ACTUAL Dutch accent sounds like, but these girls sounded like ME (with a southern accent) trying to imitate a Dutch accent. The point where I was ready to call them out on their fake sounding accent was when I heard one of them yell "COME ON OVER, WE CAN'T TAKE THESE BULBS ALL THE WAY BACK TO HOLLAND WITH US!" (in a Dutch accent). I was immediately turned off and sorta ticked off. I felt deceived and taken advantage of! Do they actually think people are more likely to by bulbs from actual Dutch girls?
Towards the end of the show these chicks were screaming and giggling like they were drunk, trying to lure people over. They really made fools of themselves. People were actually screaming back at them to "SHUT UP". They kept marking their sign down further and further until the last one said "50 for $30" but I just couldn't give them any money. Instead, we got a great deal from a very nice Italian (I think) man on some beautiful Canna and Peony.
- Canna Richard Wallace (yellow)
- Canna Red King Humbert (red)
- Paeonia Festiva Maxima (white)
- Paeonia Sarah Bernhardt (pink)
Have you seen these Dutch girls at your garden show? I thought they were just some random people that were paid for this particular show but I saw a comment on a post on Garden Rant that seems to indicate that they work all the garden shows. So, does anybody believe these girls are actually from Holland? If not, does this bother you too, or is it just me? If you do believe they were Dutch, did that make you want to buy the bulbs from them, rather than the other non-dutch-accent-having bulb sales people? I need to know!
those girls sounds like a hype machine.
ReplyDeletePoulsbo florist
Well, I must say, you are making me feel a lot better about missing the Chicago garden show this year! LOL! I was really feeling bad about it too, because my mom and I usually make a tradition out of it but there just hasn't been any time.
ReplyDeleteSo sorry I am missing the very realistic dutch girls.
On another note, I am thinking that it's time to start planting my indoor veggie seeds. This is my first year of planting veggie seeds. Am I still too early or is it ok now?
Ugh... that would have annoyed the heck out of me, too!
ReplyDeleteOn the bright side, I did buy some 'Red King Humbert' cannas at our garden show last year, and I loved them. I hope they do as well for you as they did for me!
They sound more Swedish than Dutch. And a person from the Netherlands wouldn't refer to their country as "Holland," either. I wonder what a fake Dutch accents sounds like anyway. Now I really wish I could've gone - I'd have asked them to say "s'Hertogenbosch."
ReplyDeleteTSWCB - yes they do!
ReplyDeletewendi - i currently have tomato, peppers and cool weather veggies like broccoli started indoors. DO NOT START GREEN BEANS OR SQUASH INDOORS! i have a very bad experience with that. check out this website that tells you when to plant stuff. http://www.chestnut-sw.com/growform.htm choose "spring" for planting season, todays date for planning, April 15 for last spring frost and October 14 for first fall frost. you can manipulate the planning date to previous dates to see what could have been started prior to now. which veggies are you planning to start indoors? different things should be started indoors at different times - i found that out the hard way.
kim - i cant wait to plant those canna in some containers. they are gonna make great "thrillers", huh?
MMD - say what?? lol
@theysaywordscanbleed:
ReplyDeleteYeah they do.
Eeeeuuuuu! They don't sound to me like they're from the Netherlands, either. But I'm glad you had fun in spite of these tacky chickies.
ReplyDeleteI think these same women were at the Philadelphia Flower Show this year. I lived in the Netherlands for a year and spoke a little Dutch with them. I have no doubt they are from Holland. Their accents sounded authentic to me. FYI people from the north of NL, do say they are from Holland. Holland and North Holland are two of the provinces of NL and people from there say they are from Holland. People from Limburg where I lived say the Netherlands. I bought some of the "flowering ferns" but now I am prepared to be disappointed.
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