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Flowers >
More Flowers
Shown above in the photo is a mix of pink
and red tulips, once considered the rare
flower that only the wealthiest people could
afford.
There are many shades of tulips, a graceful
flower shaped like a vessel that could hold
ingredients if its stems were petals were
connected to contain the items within.
The shape of a tulip actually does act to
preserve it longer and keep its petals cool
and moist in the sun. Associated with places
such as Holland known for massive fields of
tulips that bloom in the spring, the tulip
requires a freeze as it rests underground,
then grows and blooms when the weather gets
warmer. The tulip (tulipa) is a genus of
about 100 species of flowering plants in the
family Liliaceae. Native to southern Europe,
north Africa, and Asia east to northeast of
China and Japan, it is a perennial flower.
It grows from a bulb anywhere from a few
inches tall to approx. 2 feet.
Waxy-textured with long, green leaves
and large flowers with six petals, each
flower contains a dry capsule containing
numerous flat disc-shaped seeds. Tulips com
in shades such as red, pink, yellow, white,
lavender, purple and
peach.
Tulip Festivals are held in the Netherlands
and in North America every May. North of
California in Oregon, the Wooden Shoe farm
celebrates a tulip festival each year
(usually March through April)
www.woodenshoe.com In California,
Tulip Hill Winery in Nice, California
contains more than 30,000 tulip bulbs that
bloom each year, thanks to the region's cool
winters. For many areas of California such
as the mild beach regions, there's one way
to get tulips to grow. It requires
purchasing bulbs and keeping them
refrigerated till around December when they
should then be planted. Before planting,
store the bulbs in paper or netted bags (not
plastic) for six to eight weeks in the
vegetable drawer of the refrigerator. Do not
mix them with fruit. When planting them,
plant in full sun and well-drained soil.
In the early 1600s, Dutch and European
aristocrats acquired tulips as a status
symbol. "Tulip mania," was an actual
phenomenon in which a tulip bulb could
command the equivalent of $2,300 along with
a notarized bills of sale to authenticate
the bulb's origin and owner. Some compare it
today the dot.com boom and bust. Fortunes
were made and lost on the acquisition and
sale of tulips. A book called Tulipomania
documents the tulip frenzy that took place
in Holland in the mid-1600s. Lack of
regulation and poor quality control were
both contributed to the abrupt crash in
February 1637. Fortunes were lost, people
ruined and debts went unpaid in a crash
similar to the famous stock-market crash of
1929.
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