Facts about Tulips

You must have seen mind-blowing, colorful blooms of tulips in several movies. Tulip is the world’s third most popular flower after rose and chrysanthemum. It is a cup-shaped, bright colored, elegant flower, with a smooth, green stem. Tulips have been cultivated for about 500 years. They have their origin from Central and Western Asia. Tulips were brought to Turkey by the nomadic tribes. During the late 16th century, a European ambassador visited the Turkish Ottoman Empire. He was gifted with tulip bulbs and seeds. He gave some seeds to the Roman emperor Ferdinand I and remaining seeds and bulbs to a botanist, Carolus Clusius, employed by the Roman Emperor. Tulips were introduced in Holland, when Carolus Clusius was appointed as the professor of Botany at Leiden University. Since then, Holland has dominated the world tulip market. Now you must be very eager to know more about these magnificent flowers. Read on to get some interesting facts about tulips.

Facts about Tulips

A botanical classification of tulip is as follows: Kingdom-Plantae, Division-Magnoliophyta, Class-Lilliopsida, Order-Liliales, Family-Lilliaceae and Genus-Tulipa. There are about 3,000 various known varieties of cultivated tulips. Every year, billions of tulip varieties are cultivated. Majority of the tulips are grown and exported from Holland.

Tulips come in a wide variety of vibrant colors such as red, yellow, orange, purple, pink and bi-colors. A tulip plant has typically 2-6 leaves, while some species have up to 12 leaves. An average height of a tulip plant ranges from 10-70 centimeters. Generally, tulips have one flower per stem. However, few species may have up to four flowers per stem. The attractive, colorful, cup-shaped flowers possess three petals and three sepals. There are six petaloid tepals, marked near the base of the flower with darker markings.

Tulips are classified into 15 classes on the basis of season of bloom, parentage and various floral characteristics. Tulips are available within November to May and they have a life span of 3-7 days. There are three types of tulips depending upon the time of bloom, such as early flowering tulips, midseason flowering tulips and late flowering tulips.

Early flowering tulips, including Red Emperor, Waterlily, Greigii Tulips, bloom in March and early April. Midseason flowering tulips, such as Swan Wings Tulips, Parrot Tulips, Darwin Hybrids, bloom in April and early May. Late flowering tulips such as Rembrandt Tulips, Fringed Tulips bloom in the month of May.

For cultivation of tulip plants, a well-drained, airy, loamy soil is recommended. They require watering after planting during early spring or fall, as well as before blooming and after blooming. Tulip plants should be protected from small animals such as squirrels, rabbits or gophers.

Tulips are in a great demand all over the world. They are used for making the beautiful bouquets and for wonderful floral arrangements. They are an integral part of decorations for some special occasions such as weddings. Tulip is the national flower of Turkey. Tulip flowers are supposed to be a token of a perfect lover, passion, love, declaration of love, romance, fame, charity and dreaminess.