Tulip
From Turkish turban to Amsterdam canalside house
Ah, tulips! You’d think you can hardly get anything more Dutch, but the tulip is actually pure Iranian, pure Afghan and pure Kazakh. Nomads brought the colourful flowers to Turkey, where manly sultans started wearing a tulip on their turban. That’s how the flower got its name: ‘tulipan’ means ‘turban’.
Colours and shapes
The ever-cheerful tulip comes in white, red, yellow, pink, purple, orange, green or with multi-coloured petals. The shapes of the tulip are also a feast for the eye. You can find them with a single or double row of petals, whilst there are also eye-catching fringed and parrot tulips with serrated petals, and there’s the playful lily-flowered tulip. Peony tulips look like peonies, and French tulips are exceptionally tall (unlike the average French mademoiselle) and have very large flowers
Symbolism
If you gave someone a tulip in the sixteenth century, you were giving them a fortune. At that time the flower was incredibly popular and a speculative trade in tulip bulbs developed. You could buy a whole canalside house in Amsterdam for the price of one tulip bulb in those days. A nice bunch of tulips now costs just a couple of pounds, but the symbolism has gained in value. If you give someone tulips, you’re also giving them a message. Hence red tulips mean passionate love, and with black tulips you’re saying: ‘I love you so much I will sacrifice everything for you.’ So don’t give those to just anybody.
Origin
Tulips can be found growing wild from north Africa and southern Europe across to north-west China. The greatest diversity can be found in three mountain ranges in central Asia: the Pamirs, the Tian Shan and the Hindu Kush. With cold winters, long springs with cold nights and a dry summer, the climate here is ideal for tulips. Tulips need a cold night and a cold winter in order to be able to grow, which is why they can’t be cultivated in a warm climate.
Caring for tulips
With these care tips consumers can enjoy their tulips for 5 to 12 days:
• Select a clean vase that’s tall enough: tulips will continue growing a few centimetres.
• Add cut flower food to the water for a longer vase life.
• Place the tulips in the vase for an hour wrapped in paper or film. The tulips will then suck up water and straighten up.
• Use tap water at room temperature.
• Trim the stems diagonally with a clean and sharp knife or secateurs.
• Place the vase in a cool spot away from the fruit bowl and not in the sun.
• Tulips drink a lot, so regularly top the vase up with tap water.
• Add cut flower food to the water for a longer vase life.
• Place the tulips in the vase for an hour wrapped in paper or film. The tulips will then suck up water and straighten up.
• Use tap water at room temperature.
• Trim the stems diagonally with a clean and sharp knife or secateurs.
• Place the vase in a cool spot away from the fruit bowl and not in the sun.
• Tulips drink a lot, so regularly top the vase up with tap water.
All this and more can be found on this page, a great source of inspiration and ideas for flowers in the home.
If you are looking for tulips to display in your house, for your wedding or to send as a gift please get in touch to discuss your requirements.
Sandra x
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