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| Tulips in Victoria, B.C. in front of the Empress Hotel |
I have always loved tulips!
Tulips (Tulipa spp), spring-blooming perennials that grow from bulbs, are in the lily family, Liliaceae. There are about 75 species, but thousands of cultivars.
Their showy flowers have what looks like 6 petals, but the inside 3 are true petals and the outside 3 are sepals, but since they look the same, they are called tepals. Quite often they have a different colored blotch at the base of the tepals. The standard tulip colors are solid, but a virus causes splotching and variegation and these “broken tulips” are highly valued.
Tulips are native to much of the Near East and Central Asia, the Persian and Turkish people were the first to cultivate tulips. They were introduced to Europe in the 16th Century as the Ottoman Empire spread and then became associated with the Netherlands, which became the major producer for world markets.
