Tulip History

- Tulip Time is one of the largest flower festivals in the United States.
- The Netherlands is the tulip capital of the world.
- The tulip is a native Dutch flower.

The first two statements are true; the last one is not. Living among eight miles of tulip lanes, we in Holland USA, native or adopted Dutchmen, should have some information on why these beautiful flowers are such an important part of our heritage.

A trip to the local library reveals that there is a Cretan vase, estimated to be 3,500 to 4,000 years old, decorated with what appear to be tulips. There are references that can be interpreted as tulips during the Crusades (11th to 13th centuries). The first recorded reference was in 1554 in a report by an Austrian Ambassador to his Emperor Ferdinand I on a visit to the Turkish Empire. The Ambassador wrote that he saw "an abundance of flowers everywhere-narcissus, hyacinths and those which the Turks called TULIPAN." The ambassador brought back seeds and bulbs as evidence of what he saw and within 5 years tulips were growing successfully in Vienna. It was there that Carolus Clusius, a Dutch botanist, found them and subsequently introduced them in the Netherlands.

In the next 75 years the tulip grew from the botanist Clusius' rare "find" into a medium of exchange including a "futures market" on bulbs which might produce some distinguishable variation in a unique flower which then became a collector's expensive treasure. This speculation on tulips has a tremendous impact on the total economy of the small country and eventually culminated in what is called "TULIPOMANIA" in the period from 1634 to 1637. During TULIPOMANIA prices rose dramatically for single bulbs producing, or expected to produce, exotic variations in color, size, etc. While it is difficult to compare values with present currency, recorded examples indicate exorbitant heights of prices during those days. One bulb of the tulip "Semper Augustus," a red and white flower with blue tinted base, was sold for 1,000 florins. When that bulb was lifted the purchaser found two "lumps" which he in turn sold for 1,000 florin each. The New York office of the Associated Bulb Growers of Holland quotes the following record of the price of one bulb during TULIPOMANIA: "a load of grain, 4 oxen, 12 sheep, 5 pigs, 2 tubs of butter, 1,000 pounds of cheese, 4 barrels of beer, 2 hogsheads of wine, a suit of clothes and a silver drinking cup."

No doubt the times were ripe for such madness to take hold of a normally intelligent people, but the tulip must share some of the blame because of its beauty. Florida land booms, gold stocks and other examples of similar mania prove the vulnerability is not limited to honest Dutchmen. The bubble, or the bulbs, broke in 1637 and many speculators were wiped out as sanity returned. But the tulip continued to be the national flower of Holland and as important export in their economy.

Shortly after the crash of the TULIPOMANIA market the thrifty Dutch settlers in the New World established their national flower. From 1640 on, the Dutch in New Amsterdam (New York) were said to have "a patch of cabbages and a bit of tulips."

With this brief bit of history, you now know more than most people about where tulips come from and why. The explosion of beauty that makes Holland's Tulip Time one of the largest flower festivals in the United States, attracts several hundred thousands visitors every year and we share it with them, gladly. No matter where you go in these United States, and many places around the world, when you mention you live in Holland, Michigan people will ask you about the tulips. Now you can tell them that a single bulb was once worth many times it weight in gold and today their beauty is priceless.