" The white one is "White Valley", the pink one is "Angelique" and the dark red one with frilly edges is "Labrador". Every year the WI nationally has a Bulb Scheme and members have the opportunity to buy bulbs from Taylors. In 2019 I bought the Tulip Collection."
Helen
Hinvest
Tulips (Tulipa) form a genus of spring-blooming perennial herbaceous bulbiferous geophytes (having bulbs as storage organs). The flowers are usually large, showy and brightly coloured, generally red, pink, yellow, or white (usually in warm colours). They often have a different coloured blotch at the base of the tepals (petals and sepals, collectively), internally. Because of a degree of variability within the populations, and a long history of cultivation, classification has been complex and controversial.
The
tulip is a member of the lily family,
Liliaceae,
along with 14 other genera, where it is most closely related to
Amana,
Erythronium and Gagea,
in the tribe Lilieae.
There are about 75 species,
and these are divided among four subgenera.
The name "tulip" is thought to be derived from a Persian
word
for turban,
which it may have been thought to resemble.
Tulips
spread rapidly across Europe and more opulent varieties such as
double tulips were already known in Europe by the early 17th century.
These curiosities fitted well in an age when natural oddities were
cherished and especially in the Netherlands, France, Germany and
England, where the spice trade with the East Indies had made many
people wealthy. Nouveaux
riches seeking
wealthy displays embraced the exotic plant market, especially in the
Low Countries where gardens had become fashionable.
The
Black Tulip
by Alexander Dumas – It’s 1672, the
city of Haarlem,
Netherlands,
has set a prize
of
ƒ100,000
to the person who can grow a black tulip,
sparking
competition between the country's best gardeners to win the money,
honour and fame. Only the city's oldest citizens remember the tulip
mania 30
years earlier, and the citizens throw themselves into the
competition.
