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There are tulips growing wild throughout Europe and Asia - indeed they may be the biblical lilies of the field that outdid Solomon in all his glory.
The tulips that appeared so widely in 17th Century flower paintings were complicated hybrids, originally cultivated in the gardens of Turkish sultans. These were known as Ottoman tulips and had petals with very pointed tips.
The Austrian ambassador to Istanbul, Ogier Busbecq, is credited with bringing them into Europe in 1556 together with their name. Tulip meant turban and referred to their shape, but in fact the Turks called them lilies.
In early paintings this oriental shape (still known as lily-flowered) appeared alongside the more rounded tulips admired in Europe - one description said the perfect tulip should be bolt upright on its stalk like a goblet.
Even more compelling to collectors and painters were the vivid colours of tulip petals. A virus caused these to 'break' into fascinating patterns. European plantsmen, led by the Dutch botanist Clusius, bred and classified them and from early in the 17th Century the different colour combinations appeared in paintings, arranged in vases of fabulous blooms.
In fact the artist would have made individual studies of each flower and then painted an artificial arrangement which best displayed their shapes and colours. Rose tulips were red and white; bizarres were red or purple and yellow, and bybloemens were purple and white.
Tulips in these groups were distinguished by their markings and given aristocratic names - the most famous was Semper Augustus - and collected across Europe. Prices rose accordingly because these were rare plants. In Holland the phenomenon of 'tulipmania' took over. Tulips were traded for profit, at auctions and taverns, in a feverish market that relied on credit and confidence. The crash came in 1637, when tulips became a moral issue and a dire warning about the excesses of capitalism. But their beauty was undimmed and continued to be celebrated in flower still lifes.
More about the tulip from BBC Gardening |
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 Tulip
Sunflower
Lily
Rose
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The Wakefield Tulip Society still grows the traditional striped tulips which have broken colours caused by a virus.
These can be exchanged among members and exhibited, but not sold because of EC regulations about plant disease.
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