At a Glance

Tourists are wandering into the flower fields in search of the perfect photo.The damage to flowers is costing the farmers thousands of dollars.New signs aim to gently ask the visitors to stay off the flowers.

This is why we can’t have nice things. In the quest for the perfect selfie, tourists in the Netherlands have been wading into the country's vast tulip fields. And they're .

Dutch farmers say the visitors are flattening the tulips, daffodils, hyacinths and other flowers that grow in vast fields, and they are causing thousands of dollars worth of damage.

To deter them, some growers are putting up barriers around their fields and signs that read, "Enjoy the flowers, respect our pride."

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“,” Simon Pennings said of the tourists, according to a report by The Guardian.

“We get large groups of people visiting, which we find very nice and fun, but they flatten everything," said Pennings, who grows flowers near Noordwijkerhou, about 20 miles southwest of Amsterdam. "It is a shame and we suffer damage as a result. Last year, I had a plot with €10,000 ($11,136) in damage. Everything was trampled … They want to take that selfie anyway.”

Bicyclists pass a sign asking tourists to stay out of the bulb fields in Lisse, Netherlands, on Wednesday, March 27, 2019.

(AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

The signs are part of a pilot program by the local tourism board to educate tourists, who pour money into the region, about the damage they can inflict. The bulb of a trampled tulip won't grow enough to be sold, the Associated Press reported. Volunteer ambassadors also will be at the farms to teach visitors about the history of the tulip fields. Tulip season runs from the end of March until mid May, but the flowers are usually at their best halfway through April, according to holland.com.

“In recent years, the number of tourists coming has been higher and higher,” Nicole van Lieshout, a spokeswoman for the board, told The Guardian. “I think the tourists think the fields were made for them. Everyone wants the perfect selfie and the pictures go all over the world, lying or dancing among the flowers.

“We don’t want to send the tourists away. The farmers make the fields beautiful for the visitors, but pictures need to be taken on the edge of the fields, not in or on the flowers.”

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Pennings said when he explains to visitors what happens when they lie on the flowers or jump and dance among them, they understand the problem.

“It’s largely ignorance. I assume that. Milk also comes from a factory and not from a cow. That is also the case with the bulbs. It is thought that it is a kind of plastic.”