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Uncategorized /

Floral Celebration of 50 years Diplomatic Relations between the Netherlands and China

What started as an idea in late 2021 has come to bloom! In cooperation with the diplomatic network of the Netherlands in China and with the support of sponsors, local governments and partners, IGMPR will design, build and implement an Immersive Blooming Object based on the celebration logo, that will travel to 9 cities in China in 2022.

On 29 January the first implementation opened to the public in the beautiful Yuntai Garden in Guangzhou. Untill 20 February , over 120.000 visitors enjoyed the power of flowers and beautiful images were widely shared across (social) media.

Right after the Guangzhou we moved the installation to the city center of megapolis Chongqing, and 4 more cities will follow until May.

There is so much to share about the impact, the technicalities, the flowers, the organization, but we let these images speak for itself.

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Flower Bulbs /

Istanbul Tulip returns to its birthplace

It was a privilege and honor to see the original Istanbul Tulip being planted after almost 300 years in its place of birth, together with mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and Dutch Consul General Arjen Uijterlinde . This specific tulip was cultivated by the Ottoman gardeners untill the 18th century. Based on our historical research in the works of French botanist Redouté and the British Botanical register we found references to the tulipa acuminata, which was imported directly from Istanbul in the early 19th century and bloomed in the royal gardens in France and UK. Since then cultivation continued on a very small scale in the Netherlands until present day. We look forward to the blooms next Spring! Thanks for the contributions of Gül Yavuzer Irepoglu, Arie Dwarswaard and many others. İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyesi Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Ankara and Consulate General in Istanbul

Our research can be found here:

Flower Festival /

New exhibition announced!

We are very excited to announce that our immersive ‘Journey of the Tulip’ experience will will feature during the world’s oldest tulip festival, Tulip Time in Holland, MI. This is our first project in the USA and we can’t wait to welcome visitors next May!

Uncategorized /

Return of the Istanbul Tulip 2.0

Since the official presentation to the mayor of Istanbul last year, The Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands continued the tradition of tulip diplomacy which was once initiated by the Ottoman Sultans. On April 27, the Dutch National Day, over 1.000 Istanbul tulips were handed out by Consul General Bart van Bolhuis and his staff to partners and relations. At that same time a brochure with the research we conducted last year was published. Dutch Florist Romeo Sommers paid tribute to this very old tulip variety in the TV programme Koffietijd. Pictures of the tulip bouquets circulated all over social media. (Photo credits: Rijksmuseum, Koffietijd, Ingrid Woudwijk and Paleis Het Loo)

Flower Bulbs, Flower Festival, Garden Tourism /

Record visitation for Dafeng Holland Flowers

On March 27, the Dafeng Holland Flower Park the Tulip Festival in Dafeng Holland Flower was officially opened. With new floral acts, parades and installations it offers the visitors an immersive experience into the world of flowers. A dazzling 299.000 visitors enjoyed the tulips from April 3-5 during the Chinese Tomb Sweeping festival, and more are expected to visit throughout April.

Many of the scheduled tulip festivals around the world had to scale back or close also this spring due to COVID-19 restrictions, but fortunately there are still some places open for people to enjoy them!

IGMPR has been supporting Dafeng Holland Flowers since 2015, when it first opened to the public ,and the park has developed itself into one of the major tourist attractions in East-China and is the largest flower park in China.

Conferences /

IGMPR to present at AIPH Expo Conference

On 16 March 2021, our founder Mr. Ibo Gülsen will be presenting during the AIPH Expo Conference. Creating compelling storylines and themes are a necessity to activate and attract visitors to any leisure destination including Expos. Based on his experience in the international flower and garden tourism industry, Mr Gülsen will highlight how (Flower) Culture can enhance the visitor experience of horticultural expo’s and attract hundreds of thousands of visitors and more.

Update: our presentation can be viewed here.

General /

Happy Holidays!

As 2020 is coming to an end, we will remember it as a year of extremes. While our core markets (Flowers and Tourism) where heavily affected by the pandemic, we were fortunate to continue to work on key-projects and clients and managed to implement the world’s largest off-season tulip show in Shanghai last October, against all seasons and odds. A small project with a big impact was the Return of The Istanbul Tulip, last May. The operations in the Dafeng Holland Flower Park, recommenced already in March and has seen great visitation numbers since then.

Also exciting new projects in the USA, China and Italy came through, where we are working on at the moment. We look forward sharing the results with you coming Spring.

In between we completed a number of feasibility studies and masterplans for clients related to garden and flower tourism and retail, and celebrated the 5th working anniversary of our colleague Zao Ye, who also made a great contribution to the International Autonomous Greenhouse Challenge.

We were glad to connect with our audiences and share our passion for flowers, gardens and tourism in different conferences and media.

We certainly miss meeting you less frequent in person, this year, but thanks to our local colleague Yi Yin and a wide range of video conference tools we managed to stay close from a distance.

We would like to thank our clients and partners for the pleasant and continued cooperation and we wish you and your loved ones a happy and healthy new year!

Team IGMPR

Flower Bulbs, Horticulture, Projects /

The World’s Largest Off-Season Tulip Show

During the October National Holiday Season, Oriental International Shanghai Floriculture Industry Development ltd (‘OISF’), launched the world’s largest off-season tulip festival in Miao Village on Chongming Island, Shanghai. Close to 1.8 million tulips were forced exactly into bloom for China’s most important holiday season, which lasts from 1 to 8 October.

Preparations for this big event already started last year, with the production and sourcing planning from different partners and suppliers in China, Netherlands and New Zealand. “We had to find solutions against all seasons and odds” says Ms Coco Yang, general manager of OISF. In the climate in Shanghai, with its hot and humid summers, it is impossible to plant tulip bulbs in the open landscape. The bulbs need a cool dormancy period of 3 to 4 months to develop a strong root bases and high-quality flowers. With the support of local and overseas partners we managed to import 1.8 million tulip bulbs from New Zealand and plant them on pots in June and store them in cooling rooms until mid-September. During 10 days about 50 trucks arrived at Chongming Island with the pre-rooted tulips from different locations across China. There over 400 workers planted the tulips into the landscape of the beautiful Zhongzhong Forest in Miao Town.

IGMPR has been supporting OISF in this project from the very beginning in the planning, sourcing, quality control and project management. ‘The use of pre-rooted tulips, allows tulip gardens and festivals to exactly time the blossom moment and extend the operation period. This is the first time ever, it has been done on such a massive scale, and we were honored and proud to work on this project since last year, says project lead Ibo Gülsen. Despite the world-wide pandemic and challenges in supply chains and travel restrictions, we managed to stay on track and achieve a magnificent result, thanks to OISF and all partners that were involved.”

Although visitation is capped at 1.000 visitors at any moment in the park due to COVID-19 regulations, over 5.000 visitors visit the show on a daily basis, with peaks of even 10.000. The show is also a warm-up for the coming 10th edition of the China Flower Expo which will be held on Chongming Island from May 21- July 2 in 2021.

For this accomplishment the chairman of the World Tulip Society, Mr Michel Gauthier, presented via a video message the award for the ‘World’s Largest Off Season Tulip Show’: “This project has proven again that the tulip is truly an international flower that can bring pleasure and joy to people at any time and place in the world”.

Media /

IGMPR features in FloraCulture Magazine

The latest edition of FloraCulture International, the magazine for the international ornamental horticulture industry, contains an interview with Mr Ibo Gülsen about his experience in Asia and his latest project in Myanmar.

Both Pieter Teisman and Ibo Gülsen visited the beautiful country of Myanmar on a regular basis in 2019 to prepare for the flower festival in the National Kandawgyi Gardens in Pyin Oo Lwin. “We were so astonished by the rich flower culture that Myanmar has in its daily life and arts, so we decided to dedicate the theme of the festival to the ‘Culture of Flowers’. The festival was held from December through January and attracted over 500.000 visitors in just 30 days. 

You can read the full article here