Tulips from Amsterdam?
By Carole Davies - 09/04/2009
Everyone knows the song When it’s Spring again, I’ll bring again Tulips from Amsterdam. I would hazard a guess that most people believe that the tulip originates from Holland, when in fact, this outstandingly pretty spring blossom is indigenous to Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia where it grew in the wild and was first cultivated by the Turks as early as 1000AD.
Some say that the flowers were named after the Turkish word tulbend – also the source of the word turban. Tulips were only introduced to the Netherlands in the 17th century by the biologist Carolus Clusius - the director of the Haitus Botanicus in Leiden. Clusius received
some tulip bulbs from his friend the Ambassador to Constantinople (now Istanbul), Oghier Ghislain de Busbecq, who had seen them growing in the palace gardens and knew that the botanist would appreciate some.
The tulip at one time attracted much excited attention and grew in popularity, becoming a status symbol in the Dutch Republic. Prices for a single bulb of some of the hybridised flamboyantly coloured species were phenomenal and could cost as much as a house. Prized varieties of bulbs were sold whilst they were still being grown, and as such the grower would sell a promissory note agreeing to deliver the said plant when it was ready.
The buyer, would then sell on his promissory note at a marked up rate to another trader and so on, creating ‘futures markets’ where contracts to buy bulbs at the end of the season were bought and sold. The Dutch described tulip-trading contracts as windhandel – literally ‘wind trade’ - trading air. Sound familiar?
During the period between 1636 and 1637 ‘tulip mania’ reached its peak. Traders made huge amounts of money as demand was high. People even sold businesses and property to trade in tulip bulbs. The government of the day were concerned about the trade but could do nothing about ‘tulip mania’. Eventually in February 1637 over-supply led to the collapse of tulip contract prices and many dealers became bankrupt. The ‘Tulip Crash’ forced the Dutch government to introduce special trading restrictions on the flower.
Interestingly, it was later discovered that what had given the flowers their vibrant flame-like colours and patterns, and that had made them so highly sought after, was caused by the mosaic virus.
Today, diseased plants are not sold and the patterns and colours of modern-day tulips are hybrids that might look the same as those previously diseased varieties, but are in fact genetically stable.
The tulip is now widely grown in Holland and the bulb fields deservedly attract many, many visitors; but the subject of Alexandre Dumas’ book - La Tulipe Noire (The Black Tulip) - remains steadfastly unattainable and has thwarted those breeders who have ceaselessly tried to produce a true black variety.
It may be that if someone did succeed in producing a truly black tulip we would once again see the return of ‘tulip mania’.