For the Love of Tulips

Tulips - the word is Turkish for turban. A wildflower from central Asia, they were first cultivated by the Turks. (Turkey has its own Tulip Festival near Istanbul each spring.)  Tulips are now known to be a great export of the Netherlands. The first bulbs  in the Netherlands came to be when botonist Carolus Clusius planted some bulbs in the University of Leiden's research garden.  It was fall 1593. By spring 1594, tulips were beginning to bloom, and this once wildflower would forever change a nation.

Tulipmania

By 1636 tulip trading and speculation was at its zenith and getting out of hand. Some bulbs were more expensive than an Amsterdam house!  Regular people were sinking every penny they had to get their hands on a bulb. In 1637, a single bulb of the legendary Semper Augustus fetched the outrageous price that equaled 10 year's of an average person's income.  By 1637, the bottom fell out of the market, resulting in many bankruptcies.

The Semper Augustus Tulip, shown above, was the most expensive tulip ever traded/bought during Tulipmania.  Ironically, the beautiful stripes and varigations so sought after were actually the result of a tulip virus.

Tulipmania even made it into literature.  The acclaimed French author, Alexandre Dumas wrote La Tulipe Noire ( The Black Tulip), a novel of intrigue written around Tulipmania.

The love affair is still ongoing with this flower. The Netherlands is the world leader in cultivation, and most of the bulbs grown here are shipped to North America and Europe. The above picture of a tulip field is courtesy of curiousphots.blogspot.com

Keukenhof Gardens

I have always wanted to see the tulip fields of Holland.  Since I am currently teaching in year-round school, and will most likely be transferring to a new school with a traditional calendar, I knew this would be my last chance in a very long time to go to the Netherlands to see the tulips.

Keukenhof Gardens is the world's largest bulb garden covering 32 hectares of ground with around seven million bulbs (tulips, crocus, daffodils, hyacinths).  It is located near the village of Lisse, which boasts the Museum de Zwart Tulp, the Museum of the Black Tulip, where a person can learn everything possible about tulips, including why black and blue tulips do not exist.  If anyone can cultivate those two colors, Tulipmania may begin again.

I would arrive just as Keukenhof would be opening.  It opens for only about 10 weeks a year.  It was possible I may not see the tulips in full bloom.  But, there would be other flowers in bloom, and I knew I could always go to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving point in April, although it would not be the same.

It was a crisp, sunny spring day.  Most of the tulips had not bloomed, but Keukenhof has pavillions where spring came early, and I wasn't disappointed. The garden also has a petting zoo of farm animals, and a playground - because when you are a little kid, looking at flowers is only interesting for so long!  (The bunnies were also a favorite of some Chinese visitors, who asked me to take pictures of them with the bunnies.)

There got to be a point where I got lost. I didn't care! I wandered around until I found a place that served hot chocolate. Dutch hot chocolate is to die for!

I am going to leave you now with just a few of my pictures. (I took over 100 pictures!)  Enjoy!