New Tulip ‘Future 400’ commemorates the first Dutch settlement in America – Nutten Island

New York’s recently held Tulip Festival saw the launch of a new ‘Future 400’ tulip, a tribute to the first multi-national city that was founded 400 years ago.

In 1624, the Dutch West India Company – a trader that played an important role in the Netherlands’ often brutal colonial history (the country’s King Willem-Alexander apologised for his country’s role in 2023) brought a handful of predominantly French Huguenot families on the ship, New Netherland, to found the first Dutch settlement in America on what back then was called Nutten Island but today is known as Governor Island.

The  ‘Future 400’ tulip, launched at New York’s first tulip festival last week, is a token of enduring friendship between the USA and the Netherlands. The ‘Future 400’ tulip features deep orange blooms that rise above sturdy stems and makes therefore the perfect tulip for flower forcing.

Dutch bulb farmers are busy building up sufficient bulb planting stock to secure year round availablity of the tulip in the long term.

The driving forces behind the  EU-founded ‘Future 400’ campaign is Royal Anthos, the trade association for the Dutch bulb and nursery stock sector, in association with the city of New York, and the Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Royal Anthos represents 1,900 companies trading flower bulbs and nursery stock products. The tulip is arguably the Netherlands’ most iconic flower with Anthos members representing 99 per cent of the tulip value chain including breeding, propagation, trade, storage and research.

The launch of the new tulip took place in the framework of Future 400, an initiative of the Consulate General of the Netherlands. The project’s  website reads, “Future 400 is an initiative to mark 400 years of Dutch New York history with honesty and integrity, creating space for others who share this common heritage to voice their feelings and experiences at this momumental moment”.

Or, as Ahmed Dadou, Consul General of the Netherlands in New York, puts it, “From the past to the present, Future 400 projects center a multitude of voices – Indigenous, African-American, Dutch, and others – who made up the vibrant tapestry that was New Amsterdam, and whose diversity continues to distinguish New York City to this day. “