A sea of red on the tulip field

by Jeroen de Jongh Photography

Tulip is a genus of single-seeded plants in the lily family. Tulips were introduced to the western world by Vienna's ambassador to Turkey, Ogier Gisleen van Busbeke, who wrote about the flowers he had seen in Edirne, Turkey, in 1551. He later sent some of its seeds to Austria, and the arrival of a cargo of tulip bulbs from Turkey in Antwerp in 1562 marked the beginning of European tulip cultivation.

The first documented specimens were planted by the Fleming Carolus Clusius in the Hortus botanicus Leiden, which he ran from 1593. Ottoman sultans wore a tulip on their turban as a symbol. Tulips originally came from the area that became known as Kazakhstan, then part of the Ottoman Empire.

The genus's range extends from the Iberian Peninsula through North Africa to Greece, the Balkans, Turkey, the Middle East, Syria, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Iran, Ukraine, southern Siberia, Mongolia and north-western China.

Tulips need a cold night and a cold winter to grow, which means they cannot be grown in warm climates. New bulbs are grown by planting tulip bulbs in autumn. Over 75% of cultivated tulip bulbs are destined for flower production at home or abroad. The rest are sold to consumers as flower bulbs or end up in parks and public gardens. The flowering period runs from April to June.

In the 17th century (circa 1630 - 1637), a bizarre tulip mania developed around the tulip bulb in the Dutch Republic. Suddenly, tulip bulbs became speculative commodities. The craze drove up prices to exorbitant levels, even until the bulb was worth its weight in gold. The craze was at its peak in late 1636, early 1637. In February 1637, the 'bulb market' collapsed as suddenly as it had arisen. Many bulb speculators were left penniless.