They’re Not That Simple

When we see Tulips and Daffodils then spring is in full swing.

Now that we’ve been treated with some great warm weather, it gives us a chance to see some of nature’s beauty – around here, tulips and daffodils are popping up all over the place. Here at KHT HQ, we have great color displays around our building.

Here’s the story of two flowers – tulips and daffodils – and how they’ve evolved since they were just ‘simple’ wildflowers.  Surprisingly, the story does not start in Holland, but it does end there. In simplest terms, Tulips are from Central Asia. And Daffodils are from Spain and Portugal. Here is some cool information on these great flowers, along with awesome photographs. Special thanks to By Ray Allen, Founder of AmericanMeadows.com for the insights and image links.

Many bulb flowers, now all developed, produced, and exported mainly from Holland, are native to other far-flung corners of the earth. In fact, Holland is no bulb’s ancestral home. Wild dahlias come from Mexico. Amaryllis is native to South America. Freesias and Callas come from South Africa. And most of the species or “wild” lilies are from China, Japan, and North America.

It’s important to understand that many of the original wild forms of these famous flowers look nothing like the garden flowers that mostly Dutch hybridizers have created from them. It’s a fascinating story, unknown by most wildflower enthusiasts. Most of the true “wild” forms of these bulbs are still available, but with all the clamor and glamour of the hybrids, the wild ones are sometimes hard to find.

History of the Tulip

From dry hillsides to the Turkish court to Holland’s hybridizers and investors, growers estimate there are about 150 species of ‘wild’ tulips. Their ancestral region centers around the Pamir Alai and Tien-Shan Mountain Ranges near the modern-day Russian/Chinese border. They occur farther east into China, and west all the way to France and Spain, but most are from arid areas of Central Asia.

You may have heard that tulips “come from Turkey.” It would be more accurate to say that before the Europeans paid any attention, the early botanists of the great Ottoman Empire, also called the Turkish Empire, were very interested. In fact, the Turks were cultivating tulips as early as 1,000 AD. But their empire was far larger than modern-day Turkey. The tulips Europeans finally imported hail from areas that are now parts of Russia, around the Black Sea, the Crimea, and even the steppes north of the Caucasus, all parts of the ancient Ottoman Empire.

A famous legend from Turkish lore tells of a handsome prince named Farhad who was stricken with love for the fair maid, Shirin. One day he heard that she had been killed, and in his grief, mounted his favorite horse and galloped over a cliff to his death. It is said that from each droplet of his blood, a scarlet tulip sprang up, making the flower an historic symbol of perfect love.

During the glory of the Ottoman Empire, the Sultans celebrated the tulip, and the flowers became part of the trappings of wealth and power. One famous story tells of a Sultan who spent too much on a tulip festival which ultimately led to him “losing his head.” So well before the Dutch began their love affair with tulips, they were widely celebrated in their native lands. Today, the tulip is still the national flower of Turkey.

During the 1500s, early botanical drawings in Europe fueled the fire of interest in the tulip which eventually resulted in the notorious Dutch financial panic known as “Tulipomania.”

As Europeans became plant explorers, and began recording their findings, beautiful botanical drawings of tulips began appearing in Europe, so beautiful, in fact, that they gained wide notice. One botanical rendering in particular, called Tulipa bononiensis, became very famous. Others showed the “flamed” tulips that were very exotic to the Europeans, and interest in these “new flowers” continued to grow. These were the multicolored blooms that today are called “Rembrandt” tulips, even though the famous Dutch painter never painted flowers, other great Dutch painters did.

The main flow of the tulip story in Holland actually begins with a botanist named Carolus Clusius, working at the University of Leiden. He had worked in Prague and Vienna, mostly with medicinal herbs. In 1593 he was appointed “Hortulanus”, the contemporary title for head botanist at the University of Leiden’s now famous “Hortus”, the first botanical garden in Western Europe. However, his “tulip connection” actually began during his earlier projects in Vienna where he met a person called De Busbecq who was the ambassador to the court of the Sultan Suleiman in Constantinople, the seat of the Ottoman Empire. DeBusbecq gave Clusius some tulip bulbs from Central Asia, and he brought those bulbs with him to Holland. The rest, literally, is history.

Clusius was mostly interested in the tulip’s scientific importance, probably hoping to find medicinal uses for the bulbs. However, since people in Holland had seen the famous drawings, some became more interested in the flowers as money-makers for the developing ornamental floral trade. Clusius fueled the fire by being very secretive and protective with his bulbs, and after a while, the public was so determined to have the tulips that some were even stolen from his gardens.

Once a few bulbs got beyond the protective grasp of Clusius, they were considered very precious rarities. As a trade in the bulbs began, the prices began to rise. Through the early 1600’s the prices skyrocketed as an actual trading market developed – known as the tulip craze. As the hybrids became more and more glamorous, the limited supply of certain bulbs became highly prized by the rich, who ultimately, were willing to pay almost any price.

By 1624, one tulip type, with only 12 bulbs available, was selling for 3,000 guilders per bulb, the equivalent of about $1,500 today. (Imagine… and you can have a very similar “Rembrandt” tulip bulb now for about 50 cents!) Just a short time later, one famous sale is recorded for a single bulb going for the equivalent of $2,250 plus a horse and carriage! It was an incredible bubble, and it was about to burst.

During the 1630s, the frenzy continued as notarized bills of sale were being issued for bulbs. Fraud and speculation were rampant, and what always happens with financial “bubbles” happened  – the crash came in 1637. Many rich traders became paupers overnight, and the prices finally settled at a much more practical level. Of course, all this did not reduce the real demand, the love of the sheer beauty of the flowers. So ever since those days, the enterprising Dutch have built one of the best organized production and export businesses in the world.

Today, over nine billion flower bulbs are produced each year in Holland, and about 7 billion of them are exported, for an export value of three quarters of a billion dollars. According to the Netherlands Flower Bulb Information Center, the USA is the biggest importer of Dutch bulbs, and in a recent year, $130,000,000 worth of Dutch bulbs (at wholesale) were imported.

And A Bit About Daffodils

Narcissus, Jonquil. First, let’s settle the names. The official botanical name of the whole genus is Narcissus. Daffodil is the common name. Jonquil is a “species name” within the Narcissus genus. This means that certain daffodils are called Narcissus jonquilla. Some people, particularly in our Southern states, use Jonquil as a common name for the whole genus, but it’s really the species name for a minor group having multiple smaller flowers on each stem. So, when you’re using the common name, all colors, sizes and types are daffodils. If you get into the botanical or Latin names, they all begin with Narcissus (the “genus”) and end with a different “species” name.

The famous Poet’s Daffodil, for example, is Narcissus poeticus. It has that name simply because Linneaus, the person who devised our botanical nomenclature, decided that a certain wild species (white petals with a small bright-colored center) was the one that inspired the ancient tale of Narcissus, handed down by the poets since ancient Greek times.

Jonquil? And as mentioned, a small, multi-flowered yellow daffodil type is botanically Narcissus jonquilla. Of course, you don’t need to know the botanical names to enjoy daffodils. Just choose the colors and types you like.

The tragic story of Narcissus and Echo.  Remember Narcissus? Know people who are narcissistic? It all flows from the famous Greek myth about Narcissus, a handsome youth, who was granted his great good looks by the Gods. But as in most myths, there was a catch. His beauty was permanent, and he was immortal, as long as he never viewed his own reflection. Once, while Narcissus was hunting in the woods, a nubile wood nymph named Echo saw him from her hiding place behind a tree. He was so handsome, she fell desperately in love, but Narcissus spurned her. She was so devastated by his rejection that she wept and wailed and was ultimately consumed by her love. She pined so that soon all that was left of her was her voice. The prophecy of her name had come true. But the Gods were not pleased. The goddess, Nemesis, heard about poor Echo, and lured Narcissus to a shimmering lake. There in his vain state, he was unable to resist gazing at his own reflection and fell in love with himself! As he gazed, the divine penalty took effect, and he simply faded away. In his place sprang up the golden flower that bears his name today. Now you know how Daffodils came to be, and also why psychologists warn vain patients about the “Narcissus complex.”

Incredibly, the Poet’s Daffodill” wildflower is alive and well in the Ukraine.  In fact, they have a preserve called “The Valley of the Narcissi.” where over 600 acres of these magnificent flowers bloom each spring. You can take a quick trip to the Ukraine via the internet right now and see an incredible photo of this spring display.

For all time, it seems, the daffodil has inspired the poet, and even today, nothing connotes the renewal of spring to us as dramatically as a drift of fresh daffodils swaying in a meadow. William Wordsworth, the legendary British poet, perhaps said it best when he wrote of the flowers in his classic poem, “Daffodils”, published in 1804. This is the poem that so artfully describes the poet viewing “ten thousand” daffodils beside a lake, and is also the source of the phrase, “Dancing with Daffodils.”

I wander’d lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,

They stretch’d in never-ending line 
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:

I gazed — and gazed — but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills, 
And dances with the daffodils.

—Daffodils, by William Wordsworth

While some of the bulbs are still available from specialty sources, the original species are usually much smaller than the sturdy, tall hybrids we all enjoy. From these humble little wildflowers, the hybridizers have created thousands of versions featuring all sizes and a host of colors from the classic golden yellows and whites to bright orange and even pinks.

Today’s Dutch bulb industry is a true phenomenon in the world of horticulture, where nine billion flower bulbs a year are produced in Holland’s modern production fields today. The combination of science and beauty, with applied modern marketing, has created pleasure for gardeners worldwide. Whether it’s on a trip to Holland or in your own backyard, anyone can enjoy the spectacular results of one of the world’s most successful floracultures.

Keukenhof, the 70-acre, world famous Dutch display garden in Lisse, Holland is open to visitors every year during spring bloom which usually includes Easter and special events. Approximately a million people flock to see over 7 million bulbs in bloom, shown in woodland settings with winding pathways, sculptures, and lakes. Keukenhof’s other name is “The Garden of Europe,” and it’s the largest flower garden in the world. Visit their website at: Keukenhof

Great photos and all kinds of details about the Dutch bulb industry are online at: Netherlands Flower Bulb Information Center

Introducing Google Tulip!

Lots of people talk to their plants, right?
Well, now you can use Google Assistant on your smart phone to talk to your tulips.
https://youtu.be/nsPQvZm_rgM

Download the Google Assistant on Android: https://goo.gl/D2qe41
Download the Google Assistant on iPhone: https://goo.gl/31BfKn

See over 7 million bulbs bloom this spring, with a total of 800 varieties of tulips. A unique, unforgettable experience at Keukenhof: https://keukenhof.nl/en/