Tulip History
Tulip history is really a tale of empire building and while a short web page can never do this kind of sweeping history full justice, here are the bones of the story.Tulip Location
This is a native plant of Central Asia in northern temperate climates. The word Tulipa (the latin name) comes from the Turkish word tulbend or "turban" that the flower resembles.The tulip was cultivated in Turkish Empire gardens well before the 1500's.
How Tulips Got to Europe
The arrival of the tulip into European gardens is credited to Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, the Ambassador of the Holy Roman Empire to Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566). Ambassador de Busbecq saw them growing in Constantinople in 1554 and obtained some bulbs or seed.
We do know that Conrad Gesner described tulips growing in Augsburg in 1559. And seeds subsequently travelled via the botanists connections to England by the late 1570's.
The tulip arrived in Holland in this general time period as well and there are some reports that the original bulbs were stolen from the famous botanist Clusius's garden to form those introductions. Other reports say they were introduced as part of the growing Dutch merchant fleet.
Commercial Tulip History
1574 - Selim II of Turkey sent an order to the Sherriff of Aziz for 50,000 bulbs. There is no doubt that commercial production of this plant was in full swing in Turkey at this time if that was the size of orders they could handle.
While the first "tulipmania" was in Holland in 1634-37, a second and equally interesting one occured in Turkey during the reign of Ahmed III in 1702-20. In both countries, bulbs were sold for incredible prices and fortunes made (and lost) overnight on speculating in bulbs.
There are entire books written about these "tulipmanias" that need not be repeated in a short history.
One brief story I will pass along is that during World War Two, the Dutch Royal Family fled to Ottawa, Canada as a safe haven. When the future Queen was to be born, the Canadian government passed a law making the hospital area officially Dutch Territory so the baby girl could be born on Dutch soil. In gratitude, the family has been sending tulips to Ottawa for years now and the Ottawa Tulip Festival with its over 1 million blooms is one of the finest shows outside of Holland.
Botanic Tulip History
Even when our Ambassador Busbeq was importing tulips for the first time, there were 1323 varieties and species maintained and listed by the Turkish growers.
How the various wild plants were bred together to obtain our modern hybrids has been a question mark for centuries. It is only with the introduction of gene mapping that we'll see the answer to the question of which plant gave us which hybrid.
What is known for sure is that in 1913, a Tulip nomenclature committee was set up by the U.K. Royal Horticultural Society and comparative trials were set up in cooperation with Dutch growers to identify and give proper names to all known varieties. And in 1920, the first list was published.
This list has been continuously developed since then and now the official list contains over 2300 names some of which are synonyms. There are over 600 non-commercial or historical varieties as well listed.
Tulip History Summary
This is a brief summary of the history of this plant. It has been played a major role in the botanic, commercial and historical life of Asia, Europe and North America.
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