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 The Dutch Tulip is born
The Dutch cultivation of tulips began, slowly but surely in the 1600s, in very small private plots. Cultivation took place mainly in the area between the North Sea and Amsterdam in the region bounded by the prosperous cities of Leiden and Haarlem. This region is still called the "Bollenstreek" or the bulb-growing region. People living in this area have soil available to them that is called "geestgrond". This is a Dutch word that describes the soil lying behind the Dutch dunes which, in fact, consists of coarse-grained sandy soil.
At first the tulip was a rarity that only the very wealthy could afford. So rare and so beautiful were they that the rich clamored to have them. Tulips became a status symbol — and wealthy Dutch and European aristocrats and newly-wealthy merchant classes had to have them! A buying mania evolved.
By 1624 things had progressed to to such a craze that one tulip, the reknowned white and maroon "Rembrandt-type" tulip 'Semper Augustus', could command a price as high as 3,000 guilders per bulb — with only 12 bulbs available for sale! The equivalent of £1,500. today. Just a short time later, a similar bulb fetched a whopping 4,500 guilders (£2,000), plus a horse and carriage. |
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 Today's civic tulips beds with thousands of bulbs planted en masse would have astounded tulip growers back then who planted individual bulbs as specimens in the "renaissance style" gardens of the day, with formal parks surrounded by hedges. The most expensive flowers were the Rembrandt-type or bi-colors with distinctive flames or broken stripes of color, each one unique in its patterns. Solid-colored tulips were not fashionable at all.
Today we know that the original "broken stripe" tulips were infected with a devastating virus, such bulbs are not allowed in cultivation today. Instead genetically-stable flamed "look-a-likes" (hybrids that duplicate the famous bi-color, broken stripe look) are available and continue to be extremely popular. Favorites include red-and-yellow 'Keizerkroon' (introduced in 1750), red-and-white 'Cordell Hull' (1933) and maroon-and-white 'Vlammenspel' (1941). |
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