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The story of the tulip
The tulip, symbol of Holland. But did you know that this flower has its roots
in the Kazakh mountains? Even in Holland most people do not know that this is
the real place where their national symbol originated. Most Dutch people will
tell you that the original tulip was growing in Turkey but in fact traders
from Turkey brought it at the end of the 16th century
from the Central Asian mountain ranges to Western
Europe.
The first reports of tulips in Europe date from 1560 and it crossed
the Dutch border around 1570.
The first tulips in the Hortus Botanicus of the Leiden University were planted there
in 1593 by the botanist
Carolus Clusius. He wanted to show this special plant only to botanist but
after a burglary in the Hortus the bulb spread over the country.
The prices paid for a tulip rose quickly and a single bulb
of the Semper August changed owner for prices of 3000 Dutch guilders.
At that time you could buy for the same price a decent house in Amsterdam.
A similar tulip
species was sold a short time later for 4500 guilders, a horse and a carriage.
Because there were less bulbs than could be traded, businessmen started to sell
future contracts for bulbs that were still in the soil. These contracts were sold
with enormous profits and more and more people wanted to buy these contracts.
An orphanage that sold some tulip bulbs from the inheritance of orphans
earned 90000 Dutch guilders, equivalent to millions of euros in present
days. To compare, at almost the same moment the famous painter Rembrandt only asked
1600 guilders for his painting "The Nightwatch".
In 1637, the prices for tulips didn't rise anymore and there were rumours
that the end of the profit was near. An implosion of the market followed and
thousands of businessmen were ruined.
The Dutch have created hundreds of different types of tulips in the last
centuries. But not only the Dutch were good in creating new types. Nature
did also a good job in Kazakhstan where you can find 34 different species
of this flower in the wild today. If you are comming from Holland or are
interested in this flower, a walking trip in the Aksu-Jabagly nature
reserve will be
the best opportunity to see this flower in it's own habitat.
While walking in the nature reserve, you will find many tulip
species like
tulipa greigii and
tulipa kaufmanniana.
| Literature |
| 2002 | Tulpen en hun historie in Nederland
This document written in Germany in the Dutch language gives a very detailed description of the history of the tulip in Holland. The document originates from the German website Docentenkamer. | Gerard Mikmak and
Patrick Pasch |
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