Tulips are springtime, cool-weather flowers, and even though their season is short, it is spectacular. When a festival depends on when a flower is going to bloom, you might think it’s a chance thing. But the City of Holland has this down to a science and plants a variety of bulbs—some of which are early bloomers and some later.

Even microclimates affect the bloom times. Plantings near water where it’s a little cooler will be slower to bloom than those surrounded by hard surfaces like downtown, which will hold warmth and sprout tulips earlier. There was only one year in recent memory, a very warm spring, which brought the flowers out early. That was the year of the “Stem Festival.” But the overall record has been very good.

Digging up the Past

Tulips were first cultivated in Persia in the 10th century. They were called laleh, symbolizing love, passion, and the arrival of spring. They have long been part of Turkish/Ottoman culture as the flower has been depicted in art and sculpture since the 1500s. The English name “tulip” derives from the Turkish “dulband,” or “turban,” referencing the shape of the bloom. In Dutch, it's “tulpen.”        

In the 1570s, Carolus Clusius, a French botanist, lived in Vienna where he established botanical gardens and did a lot of experimenting with tulip bulbs. In 1593, he accepted a professorship in Leiden University, in the Netherlands, where he then planted his collection of tulip bulbs to bloom the next year.

In Clusius' work with tulips, he found that a virus in the bulbs causes the striping of petals. His experiments produced new and vibrant colors. All the new varieties drove investment and speculation of new exotic blooms.

This was the Age of the Renaissance which bridged medieval times and the modern era from the late 1300s to 1600. There was a great emphasis on the natural world, on art and beauty, and vibrant colors. This period spanned the time known as the Dutch Golden Age (1588–1672), when the Dutch were leaders in global trade, science, and art.  

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The Legendary Tulip Bubble

By 1634, speculation had become so intense it was known as “Tulip Mania,” or as it was locally known at the time, “tulpenwoede,” translated: tulip rage or madness, or “tulpenwindhandle,” translated: tulip wind trade, or in other words, trading the wind. During that time the trading of bulbs took place in pubs or taverns in cities all over Holland. The price of some rare varieties had grown to equal the value of a house.

This practice became unsustainable, and in 1637, suddenly the bubble burst as the bulb auction in the City of Haarlem produced no buyers. This led to the collapse of the speculative market all over the country. The term “Tulip Mania” is still used today as a nickname for Speculative Economic Bubbles in general.

The tulip bubble may have burst, but the Dutch love of flowers and experimentation never faded. Dutch settlers brought tulip bulbs with them when they first came and settled in America in the 1640s.

Almost 300 years later, the City of Holland bought 100,000 tulips for its first Tulip Festival.

According to an account by Nelis’ Dutch Village, in 1927, a biology teacher suggested a one-day festival at a Women’s Literary Club meeting. The idea caught on. The City of Holland sold tulip bulbs for a dollar in 1928, which resulted in the first Tulip Time event a year later.

Today's Tulips

Tulip bulbs are native to Asia Minor, the Near East, and the Mediterranean where they can still be found growing on hillsides. The coastal maritime climate of the Netherlands, with cool springs and moderate winters, makes the perfect growing condition. Add to that the well-drained, sandy soil of the region, and everything together creates ideal conditions for raising and growing tulips along with a great variety of other plants.

A show piece of the Netherlands’ artistry with flowers is Keukenhoff Garden. Millions of bulbs are planted annually. The 80-acre park is open from mid-March to the end of May for the bloom time of varieties of crocuses, daffodils, hyacinths, early and late tulips, and more as they are planted in beautiful arrays of color. The vast plantings intermixed with art and sculpture draw huge crowds every spring.    

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