Now 24.05.2013 2:41


*	Home

*	Orchids
*	Roses
*	Tulips
*	Narcissus
*	Lily of the valley
*	Lilies
*	Camomiles
*	Sunflowers



*	Red flowers
*	Mimosa




*	Rating


*	Site map

Tulips pictures

Tulips are beautiful flowers, aren't they? There is something special about them. Simple elegance or elegant simplicity. Tulip buds are simple and modest, but look what happens when they open! The yellow tulips often look like open hands

Tulips History

The Tulip was originally a wild flower, growing in Central Asia. It was first cultivated by the Turks as early as 1000 AD, The flower was introduced in Western Europe and the Netherlands in the 17th century by Carolus Clusius, a famous biologist from Vienna. In the 1590's he became the director of the Hortus Botanicus, the oldest botanical garden of Europe, in Leiden. He was hired by the University of Leiden to research medicinal plants and, while doing so, he received some bulbs from his friend, Ogier de Busbecq, the Ambassador to Constantinople (presently Istanbul). He had seen the beautiful flower called the tulip, after the Turkish word for turban, growing in the palace gardens and sent a few to Clusius for his garden in Leiden. He planted them and this was the beginning of the amazing bulb fields we see today.

In the beginning of the 17th century, the tulip was starting to be used as a garden decoration in addition to its medicinal use. It soon gained major popularity as a trading product, especially in Holland. The interest in the flower was huge and bulbs sold for unbelievably high prices. Botanists began to hybridize the flower. They soon found ways of making the tulip even more decorative and tempting. Hybrids and mutations of the flower were seen as rarities and a sign of high status. In the months of late 1636 to early 1637, there was a complete 'Tulipmania' in the Netherlands. Some varieties could cost more than an Amsterdam house at that time. Even ordinary men took part in the business. They saw how much money the upper class made in the commodity and thought it was an easy way of getting lots of money with no risk. The bulbs were usually sold by weight while they were still in the ground. This trade in un-sprouted flowers came to be called 'wind trade'.

The traders made huge amounts of money every month. People started selling their businesses, family homes, farm animals, furnishing and dowries to participate. The government could not do anything to stop 'Tulipmania' the trade was all about access and demand. Finally, the tulip did not appear to quite so rare as to justify such high prices. Over-supply led to lower prices and dealers went bankrupt while many people lost their savings because of the trade. This 'Tulip Crash' made the government introduce special trading restrictions on the flower. It is said that the tulip became so popular because of its bright colours, dramatic flames and frilly petals. To have tulips in one'? home was a way to impress and, when the wealth spread down the social ladder, so did the urge for tulips.

In the 20th century it was discovered that the frilly petals and dramatic flames that gave the flower its stunning look were, in fact, the symptoms of an infection by the mosaic virus. The healthy flower was supposed to be solid, smooth and monotone. The virus came to the tulip from a louse living on peaches and potatoes. Diseased varieties of tulips are no longer sold. What you find today are hybrids that look similar but are genetically stable.

Tulips Once Caused a Market Crash, but These Days Consumer Confidence Is High

By Adrian Higgins
Thursday, April 30, 2009

Perhaps you have forgotten the tale of tulipmania. The tulip craze that gripped Holland in the 1630s was an awfully long time ago, but the human desire that fueled it -- namely a lust for (illusory) wealth -- lives on gloriously.

In 17th-century Holland, tulips were still exotic and coveted, so aristocrats and merchants paid handsomely for the rarest varieties. Then the speculators moved in and figured out they could whip up the market and bring many more mugs into the game by selling shares and futures in the bulbs. The scheme worked for as long as prices were rising and demand outstripped supply. In 1633, a house exchanged hands for three bulbs. The bubble was fully inflated by Feb. 5, 1637, when an auction of 99 bulbs raised 90,000 guilders. By comparison, Rembrandt received 1,600 guilders for his masterpiece "The Night Watch."

The "pop" heard around the polders occurred the same month that jittery buyers failed to bid at an auction in Haarlem. Those who had borrowed to invest in shares found themselves ruined. Here's another interesting parallel between tulipmania and our current economic mess: The most coveted bulbs had bicolored petals whose patterns danced like flames or feathers. Scientists later discovered that this was due to a virus transmitted by aphids. Talk about toxic assets.

Just as tulips were once a vehicle of misery, today they have the capacity to lift our spirits because we have learned to love them for their own sake. The Dutch went on to perfect the mass production of tulip bulbs and have bred some beauties in recent decades. They now cost less than $1 apiece.

In search of pure tulip worship, I drove 150 miles south of Washington to the bulb fields of Brent and Becky Heath, whose nursery in Gloucester, Va., has long championed that most regal of spring bulbs. In the fields of his waterside home, as well as in the public display garden at the company offices and greenhouses a mile away, Brent Heath introduced me to some stupendous tulips and reacquainted me with some old favorites.

Growers group tulips by more than a dozen types, such as Darwin hybrid, Lily Flowered or Single Late, but it's more useful to think of them as falling into two categories. The species types, identical or close to wild tulips, tend to be low-growing and early, and will return reliably year after year if they are planted in a sunny location with extremely good drainage. They are demure but lovely. The others are highly bred varieties that are larger, showier and more colorful. However, they don't thrive in our soils and climate, and are best treated as annuals. Yank 'em out in May, grab a catalogue for next year's bulbs and think about ordering afresh for fall delivery.

Let's cut to the chase. The tulip of the season for me -- and for Brent Heath as it turns out -- is a Triumph variety named Brown Sugar. "This is my new all-time favorite tulip," he says, bending over to pull it out of the ground, bulb and all. It has a lot going for it: Its large, chalice-like flower is tinged caramel and pink, which sounds like an awful combination but works. It gets more coffee-colored as it ages. The fragrance, a trait often overlooked in tulips and daffodils, is strong and spicy. I have never seen a thicker stem on a tulip. If any tulip could take an April thunderstorm, this is the one. "This will be in our catalogue for next year," Heath says.

A variety named World Peace echoes the color combinations and sheer heft and substance of Brown Sugar, though the outer petals are more crimson and edged in gold. Heath grows it in pots, where it flourishes.

In beds awash with tulips, daffodils and other spring bulbs, it takes a star to stand out. I really like a Triumph named Gavota, with pointed petals and a strong maroon coloring edged with a thick margin of gold. Another stunner is Banja Luca, an upright, big Darwin hybrid with the sort of flamed petals (red on yellow) that got the early Dutch fanciers frothing at the mouth. The effect is achieved today, most notably in a class called Rembrandt tulips, through breeding and not the tulip breaking virus, as the disease is known.

If you are looking for a little more subtlety in a tulip, you can't go wrong with Silverstream, which is a Darwin hybrid with a faint variegated leaf margin and a creamy flower with rose-colored speckles.

Another that really caught my eye was Juan, which is striking not just for its crimson flower, orange at the base, but for the purple mottled foliage characteristic of its ilk as a Fosteriana tulip.

Of the humble species types, I have long grown and favored a clusiana tulip variety named Cynthia, which is delicate and colored a soft raspberry red and buttery yellow. It comes back reliably each April. Lady Jane is a larger form, red and white, and the petals are more pointed.

Heath groups it in a container with the muscari Valerie Finnis and the miniature daffodil Toto. It makes for an effusive floral party. And speaking of raves, Heath adores the clusiana hybrid named Peppermint Stick, which is the closest to the wild form. It opens to reveal a blue base. These varieties are all named after Carolus Clusius, the 16th-century diplomat who brought bulbs to Holland and started a mania that has raged for more than four centuries.

Images of tulips. Tulip flower. Only good quaity images - 1024*768 and higher. Free pictures online. Desktop wallpaper. Please also take a look at our other galleries roses images, Lily of the valley pictures, White orchids, Sunflowers images.

Since 26.10.2000

English | Việt | Indonesia | ภาษาไทย

Idea, Design, Programming: VR