A large shipment of flowers left the Keukenhof gardens in Lisse on Tuesday morning en route to the Vatican were they will provide the backdrop for Pope Francis’s 12 noon mass in St Peter’s square on Easter Sunday.

Star of the show will be the cymbidium, a hearty orchid coloured green and yellow, online news service Nu.nl reported on Tuesday.

When the pope speaks the Urbi et Orbi benediction at the noon mass he will be surounded by Dutch flowers which were blessed before shipment by Hans van den Hende, bishop of Rotterdam.

The flower arrangement was well thought out. ‘We had to deal with the varying  weather,’ said Paul Deckers who is in charge of the operation. ‘The flowers that we are using are very strong varieties which can take the wind.’

The Netherlands has been delivering flowers to the Vatican for Easter since 1985.