This year, the season is dedicated to the Russian Federation and is entitled ‘From Russia With Love.’ Svetlana Medvedeva participated in the event – the largest international flower show. Young women in traditional Dutch outfits presented bouquets of white flowers to Russia’s First Lady and to Princess Maxima, wife of Crown Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands. Svetlana Medvedeva signed the welcome book for honourable guests.
About 7 million plants, including hyacinths, crocuses, daffodils and tulips of many different colours and varieties have been planted all over the 32-hectare area of the park. The show also includes enclosed pavilions with delicate orchids and lilies. In honour of Russia, a flower mosaic depicting St Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow was bed out near the park’s main pavilion.
During the opening ceremony held in the main pavilion of the exhibition Svetlana Medvedeva symbolically baptised white tulips from a gold-plated jar and declared the season opened. She expressed her appreciation to the Dutch side for devoting the Keukenhof 2010 season to Russia. “In doing so, you are forecasting the events we will be holding in 2013: the Year of Russia in the Netherlands and the Year of the Netherlands in Russia,” said Ms Medvedeva.
“The festival’s main flower composition is the St Basil’s Cathedral. It is considered a striking spiritual symbol of Russia all around the world. The exhibition slogan ‘From Russia With Love’ fully reflects our feelings toward the hardworking and hospitable people of the Netherlands,” the First Lady stated.
“Relations between our nations have a long, rich history. We see you as our reliable partners and dear friends,” she said.
Svetlana Medvedeva noted that she has fond memories of her first visit to the Netherlands in June 2009. At the time, President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev participated in the opening ceremony of the ‘Hermitage on the Amstel’, an Amsterdam branch of the world-famous Russian museum. “My personal interactions with the Dutch people have been wonderful,” said the first lady.
Svetlana Medvedeva expressed certainty that “this beautiful celebration of flowers will be a bright and memorable event.”
Ms Medvedeva brought a gift from Moscow to Keukenhof: a flower composition representing the symbols of both nations – the flags of Russia and the Netherlands – as well as Russian nesting dolls.
It was announced at the ceremony that Dutch horticulturists named a newly bred tulip – snow-white flowers on a tall stem – in honour of the First Lady.
“Thank you very much. I am truly touched by this symbolic gesture,” said Svetlana Medvedeva. “These tulips are a symbol of our friendship, which will grow and blossom. And I am certain that our relations will be as light as this variety of tulips,” she emphasised.
Each season, the Keukenhof is devoted to a different theme, such as Rembrandt’s 400th birthday in 2006, Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus’s 300th birthday in 2007, the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in 2008, and the 400th anniversary of the founding of New Amsterdam in New York in 2009. This season, which is devoted to Russia, the park’s gardeners not only planted a flower mosaic depicting St Basil’s Cathedral of Moscow near the main pavilion, but also recreated Russian landscapes, fashioned a romantic Russian garden, built a real ‘Hut on Chicken Legs’ – a staple of Russian fairy tales – and placed bright nesting dolls throughout the park grounds.