Once again St. Peter’s Square will be bedecked in Dutch flowers this Holy Week thanks to a long-standing tradition between the city state and the famous flower-growing country.
As in previous years, Bishop Hans van den Hende of Rotterdam blessed the flowers destined for St. Peter’s Square at the botanical garden of Keukenhof in the Dutch town of Lisse. For nearly forty years, it has been a tradition for Dutch flower growers to donate flowers to the Vatican for the decoration of St. Peter’s Square around Easter time.
Dozens of arrangements will adorn an area of about 1,830 square feet of St. Peter’s Square and the steps surrounding St. Peter’s Basilica. The colours of the Jubilee Holy Year logo – red, yellow, blue and green – will be dominant through the use of hydrangeas, ranunculus and delphiniums, among other flowers.
The floral display around St. Peter’s will be managed by the <em>Friezenkerk</em> (Church of the Frisians), the Dutch national church in Rome. According to Alexander Evers, organist and Holy Year coordinator of the <em>Friezenkerk</em>, the flowers “radiate a message of hope”, which he explained is particularly relevant now, in addition to it being one of the central messages of Easter.
“In the times we live in, this is an important signal to the outside world,” he said. “There is always hope, always a new beginning, always new life.
“The resurrection of Jesus, the new life hereafter, is able to give us all strength and hope for a better future, both here on earth and for what comes next.”
As soon as the trucks with the blessed flowers arrive in Rome, a group of volunteers begins building the arrangements.
“We do it all together. The flowers are all donated; that’s a gesture to the Pope and the world, to show what we can all accomplish together,” Evers said.
The Dutch flower tradition started in 1985, after Pope John Paul II’s visit to the Netherlands during which a number of Catholic florists and growers decided to decorate the celebrations accompanying the papal visit with their flowers.
The papal visit itself did not go well, because of many protests, but the flowers managed to make a more welcoming impression. Afterwards, the Dutch growers were allowed to provide the floral decorations at Titus Brandsma’s beatification in November later that year. The Dutch florists were then invited to provide the decorations for St. Peter’s Square every Easter from that year onward.
“In the Vatican, this is still seen as an incredibly beautiful gesture of goodwill,” Evers said. “They are incredibly happy that the tradition endures. A prelate once said, ‘There is only one thing that is certain in the Vatican, and that is that on Maundy Thursday the flower truck from the Netherlands will arrive again.’”
Although even that was far from a certainty a few years ago. After no flowers went to Rome in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, the tradition threatened to wither away for good in 2022. Then-chief flower arranger Paul Deckers took the decision to step down, as too many sponsors had dropped out.
The <em>Friezenkerk</em> decided on a relaunch “because the tradition is too beautiful to let go to waste”, Evers said. “As representatives of the Netherlands, we think it’s important to keep giving these flowers to the world,” he said. “It would be a shame to let that slip, so then we worked with all our might to be able to keep it going.”
In short, the floral display for Easter 2022 was saved, and Dutch flowers also adorned St. Peter’s Square at the canonisation of Titus Brandsma in May of that year.
The Dutch flowers have become very important for the residents of Rome over the past 40 years, Evers said.
“People ask me well in advance if the flowers are coming again. The fact that a secular country like the Netherlands donates flowers to the Pope every year does make an impact here. It’s nice to see how we all support that,” he added.
The three popes who have headed the Church since 1985 have never concealed their gratitude. To Pope John Paul II, the Dutch owe the now famous phrase “<em>dank voor de bloemen</em>” (“thanks for the flowers”).
Pope Benedict XVI also thanked the florists with a few words in Dutch, but not Pope Francis: He always expresses his appreciation in Italian.
<em>Photo: Rotterdam's Bishop, Hans van den Hende, blesses flowers at Keukenhof <em>before they are sent to the Vatican</em>, Lisse, Netherlands, 15 April 2025. Pope Francis will be surrounded by the Dutch flowers while pronouncing the traditional Urbi et Orbi blessing from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica. (Photo by ROBIN VAN LONKHUIJSEN/ANP/AFP via Getty Images.)</em>
