With dazzling displays of colour including tulips in purple, yellow and crimson, the Keukenhof flower garden usually rivals Amsterdam's top museums as one of the Netherlands' biggest tourist attractions.

This year, for the second year in a row, millions of tulips in the park and nearby fields are blooming but will likely fade away largely unseen, as the Keukenhof remains closed to visitors amid the coronavirus pandemic.

"Keukenhof is open only eight weeks a year, from the end of March until mid-May," said managing director Bart Siemerink.

He said that given the country's current lockdown regime, his best guess is that the park will be allowed to open from the middle of this month.

"And then the tulips are gone, and probably no visitors will come at all this year," he said.

REUTERS