My Favorite Tulips - How Can You Choose?

This was my favorite - Hawaii - (at least for now...)

Tuesday, April 19, 2022

With over 800 varieties to choose from - how do you select a favorite? There were fringed petals, pointed petals, variegated colors, and blooms that were bigger than my open hand.  All blooming together at the same time.  Spectacular.

Tulips originated in the area of Kazakhstan and were brought to the Netherlands from Persia, China and Turkey. Originally found growing wild in the valleys of the Tien Shan Mountrains, tulips were cultivated in Istanbul as early as 1055.  By the 15th century, Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire had so many flowers in his 12 gardens that he required a staff of 920 gardeners.  Tulips were among the most prized flowers, eventually becoming a symbol of the Ottomans. 

Here's what Your Dutch Guide website says about the Tulipmania:

"Around 1593 the tulip first appeared in The Netherlands. At first, they were just grown in the Hortus Botanicus in Leiden and only visitors were allowed to set eyes on the pretty flowers, but soon tulips spread all over the country causing Tulipmania. This is actually considered an official era in Dutch history. This period in the Dutch Golden Age was a time in which contract prices for bulbs of the highly fashionable tulip reached bizarrely high levels. At some point in this era, one tulip cost what the average man would earn in 10 months. The market collapsed in 1637. Tulipmania is considered the first speculative bubble."

Author Anne Golgar wrote a recent book about the Tulipmania in the Netherlands in the late 1600's.  Based on her research, she reports there really wasn't much of a speculative bubble.  She says her book should be called: "Tulipmania: More Boring Than You Thought."  She states she couldn't find evidence of anyone that actually went bankrupt and the economic repercussions were relatively minor, fortunately.

Never-the-less, the tulip became an essential part of the Dutch economy, with the University of Leiden conducting early research on propagation and coloration.  Now more than 50% of the world's tulips come from the Netherlands.