Funnyhowflowersdothat.co.uk are celebrating the month in which spring begins with the tulip. The flower from the Tulipa genus exudes freshness, sturdiness and colour, and helps to bring spring a step closer. Growers therefore do their best to supply the flower as early as possible by forcing the tulip to bloom.
Credit: Funnyhowflowersdothat.co.uk
Origin
Clogs, windmills and tulips: the Dutch trinity. Aren't they? Well not quite. The flower originates from Turkey, where Ottoman sultans wore a tulip on their turban. The first shipment of tulip bulbs arrived in Antwerp in 1562, marking the start of Dutch bulb growing. New shapes and colours quickly developed and filled the fields of Holland.
Range & assortment
Nowadays over 3000 cultivars of tulip bulbs are grown on 10,000 hectares in the Netherlands. Of those cultivars, some 600 are available in the cut flower trade. Breeding has now created fifteen groups of tulips, classified by leaf and flower shape, natural flowering period and/or height. Tulips come in almost all the colours of the spectrum, including flowers edged with fringes, green splashes in the flower and double flowers that could almost pass for peonies.
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