Outdoors
Tulips By Tori Carver
L
ong before I started flower farming, tulips were my favorite flower. I absolutely adore the artistic look of tulips splayed in a vase with the arching stems reaching up and over the edges. Their colorful petals and perfect cup-shaped blooms are a much-welcomed sign of Spring and new beginnings.
Tulips originated in Asia. They were introduced into Europe and became a frenzied commodity during the Dutch Golden Age. Around 1637, at the peak of Tulip Mania, some tulips bulbs sold for more than 10 times the annual income of skilled craftsman and, often times, tulip bulbs were used as money. The Semper Augustus, which was the most expensive tulip in the world, sold for the sum of 5000 florins which is approximately $2,500.00 current US Dollars. Little did I know back in my home gardening days, (thanks to the very bland box stores that sell bulbs in Autumn), but there are over 100 species of tulips that include over 3,000 varieties. In addition to the single tulips most of us are familiar with, there are also fringed, double, triumph, French, and parrot tulips just to name a few. Parrot tulips have large, showy, ruffled petals; double tulips are also called peony blooming tulips because of their double petals which resemble peonies; and fringed Tulips have little fringed edges on each petal as if someone painstakingly cut each petal with pinking shears. Each one is unique and each one is as equally stunning as the next. As a flower farmer, I plant bulbs differently than I would as a gardener. Tulips are planted in trenches and when harvested, are pulled up bulb and all. The bulbs are then cut off and thrown in the compost pile. I know.... it’s brutal and
34 - www.laurelofnortheastgeorgia.com - April 2022
