The Amazing Adventures of Archibald Esq.
A Horticultural Hound: Tulips
Just the other day I was trotting through a tulip bed. They were still, even so late in April, coming into flower. Apparently Istanbul has a Tulip Festival. Come to think of it there’s also a tulip festival in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Which raises the issue that not all flowers get their own festivals. I mean, there’s Orchid Shows, and meetings of horticultural societies devoted to the growing of carnations, sweet peas and the like. But not that many flowers that have actual ‘Festivals.’
Tulips are bulbs that are not as showy and extravagant as the lily, nor as heady-scented as the hyacinth, but that have, in their extreme simplicity of flower-form, an understated and luxurious elegance and grace.
All of this got me curious ’bout Tulips. What are they and why do horticulturalists esteem them so highly? So I decided to do a little digging.
Seems that the tulip (Tulipa) is a genus of about 100 species of flowering plants in the family Liliaceae. They are native to southern Europe, north Africa, and Asia from Anatolia and Iran (where the flower is suggested on the nation’s flag) east to northeast China and Japan. The centre of diversity of the genus is in the Pamir and Hindu Kush mountains and the steppes of Kazakhstan.
Tulips are perennial bulbous plants growing to 10-70 cm tall, with a small number of strap-shaped, waxy-textured, usually glaucous green leaves and large flowers. The tulip is the national flower of Iran and Turkey, and tulip motifs feature prominently in Persian and Turkish folk arts.
Interestingly, the European name for the flower is a misuse of the Persian word for turban - a mistake probably originating in the Turkish custom of wearing flowers in the folds of the turban.
Unofficially, the flower is also emblematic of Netherlands. In both the Ottoman Empire and Netherlands, separate episodes of tulip mania struck both countries which both led to damaging speculation crashes which also contributed to the Ottoman Empire’s financial decline.
The tulip is often considered one of humanity’s “canonical flowers”, along with the rose, lily, orchid, and peony, and from my little historical research, it is evident that the tulip - like salt - was a ‘currency’ in the old world.
Awoof to the Tulip! Archie
Posted 23 Apr 08
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