When children learn to draw flowers, they usually first draw a daisy-like flower, a circle surrounded by petals. By second or third grade, they add the cup-shaped tulip to their drawing repertoire. Most people, even those who don’t know a lily from a lilac, recognize the tulip. It is the third most popular flower in the world, after rose and chrysanthemum.
Tulips grow wild in central Asia, through Siberia and across China. They were brought to Turkey by nomadic tribes. In fact, the word “tulip” is thought to be a corruption of the Turkish word “turbend” for turban. In the late 16th century, a European ambassador visited Turkey and was given a gift of tulip bulbs. He took them home and gave the bulbs to a botanist, Carolus Clusius, who was later appointed a professor at Leiden University in what is today the Netherlands, also called Holland. Ever since then, Holland has dominated the tulip industry.
In February of 1637, prices of tulips in Holland skyrocketed, with reports of one bulb selling for more than today’s equivalent of $500. Another report has a single bulb being traded for 12 acres of land. Now, in February, no tulips were growing yet, and the bulbs were underground, so no bulbs actually changed hands. It was basically a tulip futures market. Once the prices of tulip futures got so high that no one could afford them, the market crashed, causing the financial ruin of many investors.
Today there are over 3,000 registered varieties of cultivated tulips. For a flower that lasts only three to seven days, it’s pretty amazing that so much time and money has been devoted to them.
There are 15 tulip classifications. They fall into a particular class depending on bloom time and structure. Rather than list them all here, I refer you to your favorite garden catalog. Choose colors and shapes you like, and select a mixture of early, mid, and late season bloomers so you have color for more than just a few days.
Tulips bloom is spring, but they require a cold winter to grow successfully, so you won’t be shopping for tulip bulbs until late summer or fall. Use this growing season to decide where you can fit them into your landscape. They need a sunny spot in well-drained soil. Bulbs are planted around October 15, pointed end up, about 2 ½ times as deep as the bulb is tall.
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