Maarten Timmer (1942) is part of a Breezands bulb growers family. He studied in Wageningen and worked (1967) as a researcher and as the head of department at the ‘Laboratorium voor Bloembollenonderzoek’ (laboratory for bulb research) in Lisse. He became part of the ministry of agriculture as a consultant for the horticulture in Hoorn in 1981. After the abolition of this job in 1990, he became a consultant for agriculture in Noord-Holland (in Haarlem, also for the ministry of agriculture). After the abolition of that job in 1995, he was operative up to 2002 as a senior policy officer at a regional management of the ministry of agriculture. From birth and during its whole operative life Maarten Timmer has had much to do with bulbs: by means of research, education (manager), information (as a consultant he managed a regional public relations department) and by means of policy. Timmer studied the history of horticulture in general and bulb growing in particular. He has published several papers on this subject.