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| The Tulip: Origins in Art and Culture |
Tulips – The Story Behind these Beautiful Spring Blossoms
Tulips are one of the first flowers that herald the arrival of spring and they are the centerpiece for many springtime festivals. They come in nearly every color, shape, and variety. They have glorious names like Ballerina, Belle Parisienne, Café Noir, Calypso, Royal Lady, and Saint Tropez. Over 3,700 names are currently registered.
Tulip History – A Surprising Background
When most people think of tulips, they think of Holland, the Netherlands, windmills, wooden shoes, and brightly colored clothing and headwear that mark distinct cultural regions in the Netherlands. However, scholars tell us that tulips were first noticed in Turkey and that the tulip probably originated in the areas of the Black Sea and the Crimea. It is believed that Turks started cultivating tulips around the year 1000 AD. It is said that the tulip received its name from a Turkish word meaning “gauze” because it was thought to resemble a turban when the flower was in full bloom.
After an Austrian ambassador visited Turkey in 1556 and noticed the beautiful tulip, he took news of his sighting of this incredible flower back to Europe and it soon became one of the most sought after luxury items of its day. Prices for tulips were extremely high; so high that speculators had their own corner of the market on tulips. Only wealthy nobles and scholars could afford to purchase this lovely new type of flower. The tulip began to show up in all Europe’s sophisticated cities, including Paris, Brussels, Antwerp, Prague, and Augsburg. The tulip became the cultural flower of Europe.
A famous botanist at the time, Carolus Clusius, was given some tulip bulbs. He began experimenting with them and cultivating them. Some of the tulip variations he came up with during breeding of the tulip were brilliant, vibrant colors with bold designs. These tulips were even more highly sought after and expensive to purchase. Members of the aristocracy were the only people who got to enjoy owning these newly created versions of the tulip.
Due to the breeding, however, blended tulips that were not quite so wild and intense in appearance grew more rapidly in number as many Dutch farmers were able to grow the tulips once they became more plentiful in the marketplace. Tulips became, then, a luxury that even the poorer segments of society could own.
The Start of Tulip Mania
In 1637, a law was enacted in Holland that put a halt to the growing madness of outrageously expensive tulips and speculation on their growth and delivery, and the prices began to lower. In today’s terms, “tulip mania” is used as a metaphor to describe any circumstance which has grown into an “economic bubble.”
Tulips are often used in poetry and other artistic forms of expression. During “tulip mania,” Dutch painters were so taken with the beautiful flower that they worked tulips into much artwork that came to be known as masterpieces. There is a variation called the “Rembrandt” tulip created just to express the artist’s love of rendering the tulip.
Tulips Today – What They Symbolize and How You Can Get Them
Red tulips symbolize perfect love, yellow tulips represent cheerfulness, white tulips are given when forgiveness is sought, and purple tulips denote royalty or aristocracy. Tulips are suggested as an 11th anniversary gift, with a black velvet center which implies heated passion.
Today, you can purchase tulips at much more reasonable prices than back in the 1600s, and do it as easily as logging onto your computer and visiting any one of numerous web sites that sell flowers, clicking here, clicking there, and voila! tulips will be delivered directly to your door. You can buy lovely bouquets or arrangements to send as gifts or as a gift for you. You can also purchase tulip bulbs that will enable you to grow your own tulips and be able to watch them as the bloom.
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