The Dutch garden at the International Horticultural Exposition.Photo provided to China Daily

After Cathay's baptism, Apeldoorn received many phone calls from many other countries, including China, asking about the new tulip. "The baptism was a good promotion for Cathay," he says. "We started with one bulb and now we are ready to let more people to enjoy the beautiful flower."

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Apeldoorn brought 500 Cathay to a flower competition at the ongoing International Horticultural Exposition 2014 Qingdao, Shandong province, which lasts until Oct 25. Featuring a model of a windmill, a sculpture of wooden shoes and tulip-shaped chairs, the Dutch garden is one of the foreign gardens in the expo site.

Tulip growing is more or less a Dutch business, according to Apeldoorn, and the Netherlands is the world's main producer of commercial tulip plants since the cold weather is good for the growth of bulbs.

His grandfather founded a flower company in 1928 and passed on it to his father. Now Apeldoorn is running the company with his brother and cousin.

"I have been going to the fields since I was 8 and started with picking flowers," he says. "After you get a little bit bigger, you get to work in the fields a little bit more."

Apeldoorn later went to college to study agriculture and directly went back to the family business after graduation. "My parents provided me an opportunity to work in this business, but they never said I have to take over," he says. "But it turns out I like this work."

Apeldoorn says the flower business allows him to travel around the world working with people from Japan, the United States and China. Customers from different places favor different varieties of tulip, he says. Chinese buyers' favorite is red tulips with yellow edges - the two colors of Chinese national flag.

"We have had business in China for five years. Now I come to China twice a year, before the Chinese New Year," he says. "The tulip has not been very popular in China, but I hope more people will soon appreciate its beauty."