Tulip

“Tulips from Amsterdam…” The tulip; what could be more Dutch? Well, mmm perhaps… actually the tulip is typically Iranian, typically Afghan and typically Kazakh. Wandering nomads brought the colourful flowers to Turkey, where the sultans started a trend of wearing the flowers in their turban. Which is how the flower acquired its name; ‘tulipan’ meaning turban. If you gifted someone a tulip in the sixteenth century, you gave a treasure; literally. In those days, the flower was extremely popular and there was a speculative trade in tulip bulbs. For the price of one tulip bulb, you could also buy an entire canal-side house in Amsterdam. These days, a bunch of tulips will only set you back a couple of euros and the flower is available to everyone. Tulips are wonderful to combine in a bouquet, for example with carnations or turban buttercups to create an impressive spray. Or buy loose tulips and place them in a special tulip vase, where they can show off and jump in all directions. Growers of this product: Van der Gulik and Borst Bloemenbollen. Tip from our grower Menno of Borst Bloembollen: “Select a clean vase with sufficient height, as tulips will continue to grow another few centimetres in a vase.”

Care tips