Spoiled by colors

When the color brown still predominates in nature instead of green, tulips bring a good mood to the garden, park or vase with their expressive color. If it rains incessantly, as has been the case in recent weeks, a trip to the florist is guaranteed to help.

Before you routinely reach for a vase at home, here are four tips on how tulips can show off their splendor even better:

1 The DFB Cup arrangement

Tulips need as much space as possible in the vase.

Choose flower vases that resemble the DFB cup in shape. If in doubt, an attractive glass salad bowl is more suitable than a slim, tall vase in which the tulips cannot swing.

Inevitably crowded together in the trade bundle, tulips love to be able to breathe a sigh of relief in the vase and gently lean over the edge of the vase over time.

Tulips do not need to be thrown away as soon as they start to fade. The hottest florists, who rightly regard their work as art, such as the Australian Fjura, love arrangements with tulips that float ethereally in the room, half-wilted.

2 The arrangement of the Dutch government

When the members of the German government visited their counterparts in the Netherlands, a perfect example of Dutch export strategy was on display on the long, narrow table.

The Netherlands is the world’s largest exporter of tulip bulbs.

Comparatively low vases of tulips stood close together, one color in each vase, compact and very effective. A beautiful idea for a long Easter table. The concentration of colors is effective here.

3 The singular diva arrangement

French tulips (often, but not exclusively, grown in the south of France) have a longer growing season, are particularly long-stemmed, of inimitable elegance and with a special curve in the style.

Here, less is more: a single French tulip combined with a branch, for example, is already an eye-catcher. In a tall, narrow, transparent vase, the tulip can be shown to its full length.

4 The tactics from Delft

The Dutch ceramics center Delft developed a vase shape that is still popular today and allows tulips, but also all other flowers, to be displayed to great effect.

The vase shape with its individual openings makes it possible to combine attractive flower arrangements without additional aids such as wire mesh.

Traditionalists prefer the special tulip vases made of Delft ceramics with the traditional blue decoration.

Lovers of modern design will find interesting variations of this tulip vase from Dutch design star Marcel Wanders.

The tulip that came from the steppe

The original home of the tulip stretches along the 40th parallel through Albania, Greece, Turkey and the Ukraine to Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Iran.

The Belgian Ogier Ghislain de Busbecq worked as a diplomat under Ferdinand I in the service of the Habsburg monarchy in the Ottoman Empire. A keen botanist, he received tulip bulbs as a gift from Sultan Süleyman, which he brought to Vienna in 1560.

The Dutchman Carolus Clusius planted the tulips in the Royal Botanical Garden in Vienna and also brought the tulip bulbs to his next place of work, the Botanical Garden of Leiden University in the Netherlands.

Carolus Clusius was not the first botanist with a passion for tulips, but he had by far the best network and laid the foundations for the cultivation of tulip bulbs in the Netherlands.

For tulip lovers interested in history

The Hortus Botanicus in Leiden can still be visited today. A treasure trove for garden lovers with a sense of history.

Leiden in the Netherlands is still the center of research and development activities related to tulip bulbs. The small tulip bulbs are big business: around 3 trillion tulip bulbs are produced in the Netherlands every year and over 2 trillion are exported.

Stripes are always in fashion

The bulbs of white tulip flowers with purple stripes (The Viceroy) and red stripes (Semper Augustus) were objects of speculation during the period of tulip mania. Small fortunes were paid for the most sought-after varieties.

In the Dutch Golden Age, tulips were an expression of wealth and elegance.

In 1643, Rembrandt painted his wife Saskia van Uylenburgh as the goddess of spring Floris with a spring wreath on her head, from which a then precious white tulip with red stripes protrudes prominently. The original of the painting hangs in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

Flora, Rembrandt, 1634 © Alamy Stock Photo

At best, stripes on tulip flowers are the result of successful breeding. However, they are and were also a sign of a viral disease in the respective tulips. At least one horror that produces beauty.

On the website of the British Royal Horticultural Society, gardening specialist Michael Perry shows how to use striped tulips to great effect in a small garden with the Miami Sunset variety.

A highlight not only for King Charles III

We are sure King Charles III, like his mother in previous decades, will visit the annual Chelsea Garden Flower Show, organized by the Royal Horticultural Society.

We can highly recommend a visit there: Fresh strawberries, champagne and beautiful garden plants.

This year, the Chelsea Garden Flower Show will take place from May 23 – 27, 2023. You should definitely organize tickets online in advance.

It’s worth buying the most expensive ticket, which allows entry in the morning before it gets very crowded in the afternoon.

So after visiting all the plant growers’ stands and show gardens in the afternoon, you can relax and think about your own garden over a pint of Pimm’s No. 1.

A new pleasure every year

Unfortunately, tulips in the garden only flower as annuals. The bulbs should then be taken out of the ground to put them back in on gray October/November days and hope that at least a small part of them will bloom again.

But what could be nicer than browsing through the extensive range of tulips in the fall and deciding whether to go for parrot tulips, wild tulips, fringed tulips and/or French tulips next year?

For next year, we are planning a vintage collection of tulips developed by a Swedish grower and (where else?) that can be ordered in the Netherlands.

Scentless but thirsty

Tulips should not be expected to smell of flowers. However, they do expect as much fresh water as possible in the vase. An angled cut is good for them. In contrast to most other flowers, they still show considerable growth even in the vase.

If you combine tulips with other flowers, it is worth considering the growth, as the overall combination can easily turn into disharmony.

We hope your wine cellar and flower vases are well stocked for the coming Easter and wish you a happy Easter holiday.

Photography © GloriousMe