Tulips or Two-Lips?
Tulips in the garden, tulips in the park but our best kind of tulips are two lips in the dark. Let’s face it who doesn’t like two lips or tulips, very few people that’s who because we know that everyone likes to make out a little bit every now and then and everybody loves a beautiful bunch of brightly coloured tulips sitting (do tulips sit?) in a blue and white – a homage to their “origins”- vase looking like mother nature took inspiration from a box of smarties. While the tulip might not be as showy as a rose and mean half as much in the romance department or channel their inner warrior like the spear like gladioli you mustn’t let the tulips unassuming simplicity get the better of you at one stage in the 17th Century they were more expensive than gold. Fortunes were won and lost based on the price of a single tulip bulb. They were so popular and sort after that they caused the markets to crash causing what went down in history as tulip mania. So please don’t be too down cast when you open the door to a NetFlorist van bringing you a bright bunch of beautiful tulips just keep in mind that at one stage the more tulips you had the richer you were; wouldn’t that be lovely if that were the case today. Although maybe not so much because then we wouldn’t be able to appreciate them the way we do now, they wouldn’t be able to be a small spot of sunshine in a wintery day or a tender token of affection that means the world to one person; their petals pressed between the cover of a journal, dried and preserved forever – or until the relationship ends and they get tossed in a fire.
History & cultural Significance:
Although the tulip is most popularly associated with the Dutch and the acres of Tulip fields in Holland the origin of the flower can be found in the East in countries like Turkey, Israel, Lebanon and Iran to name a few. Tulips can be enjoyed in gardens, potted plants and as a bright bouquet or arrangement of cut flowers and the history and meaning of the tulip is as wide and varied as its origins. They are one of the oldest flowers they have been cultivated since as far back as the 10th Century although they have only been enjoyed in Europe and the West since the 1500’s. According to the Persian poets the yellow tulip was a symbol of love and devotion with the black centre of the flower representing the hearts burning desire. While during the height of the Ottoman Empire the tulip was a symbol for abundance and indulgence and we can’t forget the aforementioned Tulip fever that gripped Holland in the 17th century.
