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newyork

Lauren Due

4102025NJlauren6_2025-04-10-07-04-43

Alright, let's take a trip to Holland this morning without actually leaving New Jersey. Millions of tulips will be blooming in Cream Ridge. New New Jersey's Lauren do is live this morning at Holland Ridge Farms, getting ready for opening day tomorrow, Lauren. Yeah, so excited. We do this every year. It is such a rite of passage. If you live in New Jersey, you have to come here. Casey Jansen here, OK, we're in the museum, so you don't actually use this equipment, right? That's correct. There's quite a bit of history here of how to take care of tulips and tulip bulbs. Yeah, so tell me about this. This is a family business. You have a lot of history here. Yes, yes. My dad came here in 1964 as a 16-year-old boy, as a bulb salesman. Evolved into, uh, getting his first greenhouse to grow flowers and plants specializing in tulips, hyacinths, and daffodils, um. As, uh, the years went on, of course, he expanded and in 20, excuse me, in 1995 when I, uh, Came into the business full time. The business changed its focus from potted flowers to cut tulips, and, uh, since then we, uh. Went fast forward doing as many tools as we can up to today, including the UI farm and our wholesale division, we're just shy of 40 million. 40 million tulips. Where do they go? We, we supply many, many supermarkets on the east coast and wholesalers that end up getting it to the, um, the florist to make beautiful arrangements, and we also ship all 50 states, uh, online direct. Our farm. That's so cool. And you could actually come here, pick that. You don't need to go to the grocery store. You can come here and experience it with your family. That's correct. You don't even need to go to Holland. You don't have to fly to Holland. You can drive to Holland. You don't need that real ID. That's right. That's right. So you can come here. We open up tomorrow, um, and there's 8 million tulips that will be here to be able to, to pick. All right, well, Casey, let's do that next. Let's go, let's go on the farm. Sound good? Let's do it. All right, let's do it, guys. We're hanging out in Cream Ridge this morning. Lauren Dune, he's, New Jersey.

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4102025NJlauren630

Well, let's take a trip to Holland this morning without actually leaving New Jersey. Millions of tulips will be blooming in Cream Ridge. News 12 New Jersey's Lauren D is at Holland Ridge Farms this morning as they get ready for opening day tomorrow, Lauren. Yeah, we're waiting for that sun to come up fully and we're gonna take you out in the field, but first it's time to do some shopping. We have Kirsten here, you Casey's husband or wife rather. It's a family business. Your son is walking around too, so let's show everyone what the gift shop has here. Sure, sure. The gift shop, um, you know, you come and pick your tulips, but you could also pick tulips that last all year long. That's my kind of flower right there, pens, pencils, magnets, key chains. There's so much we have here, coffee. And are they from Holland because it looks like it has a Holland sticker on it, yes, everything's imported from Holland and we sell it here so you don't have to drive. I mean, fly to Holland drive. That's amazing. Yeah, so let's keep going because these are really cute too. You could get the, the, the clogs, right? That's clogs, yeah, wooden clogs. This is a little something for the children and colorencils, yeah, bicycles. We also have, um, over here we have Christmas ornaments. Very nice and also the shot glasses because more to come we we won't spill it yet, but more to come with that so that's very exciting and let's go on the other side too because there's lots over here. We have our apparel as well that could be uh purchased a big seller is the magnets everyone loves, you know, and who comes down here? Is it people from New Jersey or do you get people from we get people from all over, all over. There's people that fly in that have come to visit us. It's amazing. It is because if you want to get any of these pieces, you have to go to Holland to get and of course the tulips too, you know, yeah, yeah. Amazing. Alright, well, very cool. I think we need to go into the farm, right? Yes, let's go do that. And there's farm animals too. There's so much, yeah, and it opens tomorrow. Tomorrow we open for our you pick. And how long does it last? It lasts about, we hope, depends on it all depends on the weather. We're hoping 34 weeks. Wow, so you gotta hurry up and come down. All right, we'll show you all around. We are in Cream Ridge this morning. Lauren Dude he's still New Jersey. Lauren, thank you.

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4102025NJlauren7_2025-04-10-07-42-32

Alright, let's take a trip to Holland this morning without actually leaving New Jersey. Millions of tulips will be blooming in Cream Ridge. News 12 New Jersey's Lauren Dew is at Holland Ridge Farms this morning, and they're getting ready for opening day. Clouds, we got, we got the flowers ready. What's the deal, Lauren? Yeah, we are on the windmill. Remember last time we were showing you it from afar where we're right on top. We have Cay Jansen here. This is so cool. This is called the Dutch dream, and I think that makes it so much more incredible too, right? Yes, this is a dream of my father's uh when we first got into the agritainment business. Um, he's a visionary and when we first started the farm with all the tulips to open to the public for you pick, he says, Case, we're gonna build a windmill one day, and here we are today. 3 years in the making and we're standing on top of it and look at that view. I mean amazing, incredible. You could see all 400 acres, 8 million tulips here. I mean, and it's not even full bloom yet. Next week looks perfect timing for spring break, perfect weather. It's going to be a sea of color. Sea of people I'm sure people with smiles. Amazing. And this is a fully functioning windmill as well, right? It's not just for looks. It actually does spin around. That is correct. It's an authentic traditional Dutch grain mill, and we're going to grain our own corn that we grow on our other farm, and we are coming out with our own vodka line. What don't you guys do around here? It gets better and better every year that we come here. I mean, I remember talking to your wife last 2 years ago about the making of this, and here it is, we're standing on it. Casey, very cool. Thank you for this view. I mean just take it in. Who cares about the clouds? It's not raining. We have a gorgeous view. We're waiting for these tulips to bloom. We're gonna show you all around this morning. This is in Cream Ridge. That's where we are. Lauren.

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4102025NJlauren745_2025-04-10-08-01-31

Well, let's take a trip to Holland this morning without actually leaving New Jersey. Millions of tulips will be blooming in Cream Ridge. He's 12 New Jersey's Lauren D is at Holland Ridge Farms this morning as they get ready for opening day tomorrow, Lauren. Yeah, exactly. Let me know what flavor ice cream you would like. Would you like a rose or a dahlia? We could scoop it up for you here. Kirsten, this is so much fun, and this is what it's all about too. It's about picking the tulips and then experiencing and taking all the photos. Yeah, yeah, we have quite a few photo ops throughout the whole farm. Here's our newest. It is Blooming Scoop Creamery. There's also um. Horse and carriage rides we have hay rides um we have a feeding zoo, petting zoo, a whole bunch of animals, all the kids can come out and have a good time, and of course all the photo op. That's what like you want to say, oh I did this, and you could have photos and you get a lot of people that come and like we're here a couple of years ago and there's people taking first birthday photos, engagement photos, all of it. Yeah, people all get engaged here. It's very cool very cool. I love that. And you could spend an entire day. Like, what's the average would you say? Definitely people spend a lot of time here because it's a 4 400 acre farm so walking around takes quite a bit of time, but I'd probably say a good part of the day, half a day or so. And is there food here too? trucks, food trucks, bakeries, OK, so we have the food trucks, the bakeries, the photo ops, the farm. What goes on with all the farm animals. The pony rides, yeah, oh, we have pony rides, yeah, we have horse and carriage rides. So and like I said, feeding zoo, petting zoo, so it's a lot of fun for all ages, yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely, and this is new this year. You have all the bicycles. What's the symbolism behind the bicycle? Well, all all throughout Europe there's a lot more bikes than there are cars. Everyone rides a bike. Not everyone drives, but everyone rides a bike everywhere, so it's. It's kind of it's symbolic. It is, and you, you're on the bike and you have all your tulips with you. I mean that's that's perfect. Yeah, yeah, awesome and it starts tomorrow, starts tomorrow. And would you say like buy tickets online? Yes, 100%, yes, you have to buy tickets online to busy. It does, it does, yeah. Sell out sometimes sometimes yes, sometimes we do. If the weather is nice and full bloom, your husband was saying could be next week during spring break, during spring break, yeah, so a lot of people are going to be down here. If you want a picture like this, like we are right now, you got to come down here and check it out. It opens up tomorrow. Holland Ridge Friess were in Cream Ridge this morning. Lauren Dune is New Jersey.

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4102025NJlauren8_2025-04-10-10-05-44

Alright, let's take a trip to Holland this morning without actually leaving New Jersey. Millions of tulips blooming in Cream Ridge. New New Jersey's Lauren Dews at Holland Ridge Farms getting ready for opening day tomorrow. Lauren, it's time to pick some flowers. It is absolutely we are going to pick our tulips here, Kirsten, Janson, this is your family farm and let's pick some tulips this right, the best way to pick a tulip is to go down to the bottom of the stem, twist and pull up. And when you go to pick a tulip, is there something that you look for? What makes it better than the rest? They're all beautiful. Yes, you want to pick a little bit the taller ones, OK, and you want to pick it pretty close because the more close it is, the longer it'll last. Oh, interesting. OK, so I'm gonna give it a go. So down at the bottom, a good twist and pull up. Oh man, I gotta pull it out. Damn, look at that. Look how deep they are to the crop. I know that's amazing, right? Look at that. Very cool. And so how's the crop this year because the winter was cold, but you do need cold weather to grow all the uh bulbs get planted in October, November end of October November, and they need the cold to root into the ground and so before the cold they root and then they kind of go into a dormant and then they start growing once it starts getting. Uh, warmer and so how many tulips on how many acres? 8 million tulips on 400 acres and you could walk around and pick them all. That's amazing. And so you have lots of activities, you have photo props and what's the whole point of this experience? Really? it's just to get out of, you know, being in the house all winter long and just having a great time with the family. It's so wonderful to walk around and see all the smiles all the smiles, and you know, all the families being together. Oh very nice. And this is your family farm too, so it is guys we're all here. My whole family's involved. We have 3 boys, so they all work here. So it's opening day tomorrow, opening day tomorrow, so we don't know when the peak is gonna be. Is there like a timing that you're thinking about? It really depends on the weather, but probably most likely the end of next week, end of next week, and you only have a couple of weeks to see it, guys. We're hanging out at Holland Ridge Farms. We're in Cream Ridge this morning. Lauren Dune, New Jersey. All right, looks great, Lauren, thank you.

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The Spring Spectacular starts Friday, April 11 and goes until April 27. 

Enjoy millions of tulips at the Holland Ridge Farms' Spring Spectacular

The Spring Spectacular starts Friday, April 11 and goes until April 27.

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