Flower Gardening–Tulips
Hello,
Today’s post is some information about Tulips
Tulips have perhaps the most well-known and absurd history of any bulb plant. Today, thousands of tulip varieties with different colors and shapes grace gardens everywhere. The tulip began, humbly, as a wildflower in Turkey. Today, species tulips still grow wild on the hillsides. Tulip is the Turkish word for “turban.”
The famously freakish story of the tulip continues in Holland during 1636 and 1637. The bulb had gained popularity as a garden flower. Botanists began to hybridize and breed different varieties. “Broken tulips” or tulips with stripes and feathery petals became highly prized. Some were worth even more than houses. People sold possessions and participated wildly in the trading. This period is called “Tulipmania.” Eventually, the tulip market “crashed,” and thousands lost everything they had. Today, we know that the unusual and highly prized “color breaks” in the popular tulips were caused by un-stable viruses within the plant. Now, interesting cultivars and varieties are available that look like the old, “broken” tulip varieties, but their colors are not caused by a virus, and the bulbs are much more stable.
More on bulbs tomorrow.
Great Gardening!
Larry Gildea, PhD. (Dr. Larry)
http://www.gardeningbonanza.com
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