Tulips!

I really do not have a “green thumb” but tulips are hardy plants, my favorite flower and I get such pleasure from the little 2x10 ft patch I plant in front of my condo.      Some of these are over 24” —there is one I planted in the “backyard” that is 29” tall—and so big!  but I’ m not a connoisseur of tulips as so many in the past have been…. these are not yet all out so you will probably see them again as blip continues to be (I hope)

I have just read “Tulipomania” by Mike Dash (jeanneb53 told me about it when I blipped the tulip tile from Turkey) which is the story of tulips—it is believed they grew wild originally where China and Tibet meet Russia, and where the nomadic Turks would have encountered them and they soon became cultivated and venerated by the Turks in Constantinople, where gardens were so important as heaven on earth.  Travelers brought them from Turkey to Europe in the 16th C.  And then in the 1630s, a buying and selling frenzy happened in what is now the Netherlands where the prices skyrocketed excessively  with so many people becoming “florists” and trying to make money — there just weren’t enough tulips.  Or enough money,   It was a futures trading also because the bulbs being sold were under the ground and couldn’t be vouched for.  Of course the market crashed in 1637 with years of negotiations ahead for those trying to regain their money or their tulips….   Not that this sort of frenzy hasn’t happened in other places with other commodities…. but  it’s a pretty interesting story ….   And there is another library book I got at the same time called “Tulipmania” by Anne Goldgar who has promised to dispute some of those stories as pure folly.  I think I have to read it next!

Just in case you haven’t yet heard about the blip support plan for tomorrow Wed the 18th, look HERE and tag your photo #blipfotoforever.