Page 68 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL MAGAZINE 2020 SPRING EDITION INTERACTIVE

Tulip Trivia

• Tulip season in the Netherlands runs from the end of March
until mid May, but are usually at their best mid April.

• Tulips are a part of the lily family; there are around 150 spe-
cies and over 3000 varieties.

• Tulips are perennials and bloom for 3-7 days.

• The name tulip is from the Persian word delband, which
means turban and the tulip is now the national flower or
Turkey and Afghanistan.

• The tulip is native to central Asia and eventually made its
way to Turkey. It was first cultivated in the Netherlands.

• Tulips became a big deal in Netherlands when the first bulbs
were planted by Flemish botanist Carolus Clusius in 1593.
They bloomed a year later making 1594 is considered the
official date of tulips first blooming in Holland.

• Clusius developed new exciting varieties of Tulips which
led to Tulip mania which lasted from 1634 to 1637 when
everyone when bonkers about the new flower. The resulting
economic frenzy triggered one of the world’s first ‘specula-
tive bubbles’. Tulips became the most expensive flower in
the world, and treated as a form of currency. Tulip bulbs
were selling for 10 times more than the annual income of a
skilled worker. The bubble was short-lived though and the
tulip economy eventually crashed.

• Netherlands are world’s main producer of commercially sold
tulips, producing as many as 3 billion bulbs annually.

• During the Dutch famine of 1944 people often had to resort
to eating tulips.

• The bulbs are now used to make a very fine and pricey
vodka mostly purchased by amused tourists, including us, in
Amsterdam.
IF YOU GO

We were very fortunate considering that our transatlantic cruise
took us to Amsterdam during one of the prime week of the eight
that Keukenhof is open to the public. The garden is open for a
short time, and is well worth planning a European trip to coincide
with this memorable event. The garden is open to the public
from mid-March to mid-May, with the flower-viewing peak in
mid-April. Keukenhof is open from 22 March until 13 May 2018.
We were there the second week of May and the bloom was still
remarkable.

Website: www.keukenhof.nl/en/ Right to left: Gary Wasserman, Savannah Wharton, Debbi Wasserman, Mary James, Ryan Wharton

68 WDT MAGAZINE SPRING 2017