Wooden Shoes, Windmills and TULIPS!

FYI: The tulip, the beautiful flower we all look forward to seeing emerge every spring, is fairly new, say, compared to the rose or hyacinth or peony.  So reports Leo A. Borah in Some Odd Pages from the Annals of the Tulip: A "Made" Flower of Unknown Origin Took Medieval Europe by Storm and Caused a Financial Panic in the Netherlands, National Geographic Magazine, September, 1933.  The tulip is "an upstart whose ancestry is untraceable before the 16th century and whose most striking family records are written in the ledgers of the counting houses," (p. 321).

In 1555, an Ambassador to Turkey brought back to Vienna tulipans. "The tulip has little or no scent, but it is admired for its beauty and the variety of its colors," (p. 321). Botanists thought it was just a chance mutation of an unknown flower.

"The flowers became popular immediately, probably because of the amazingly varied colors and their tendency to unexpected changes of hue. . . elaborate rules for planting, fertilizing, and caring for choice varieties were written before 1700," (p. 324).

Tulip bulbs were highly sought after by the nobility of Europe. Great fortunes were made on tulip sales alone in short periods of times in the 16th and 17th centuries.  Bulbs were all 'named' with elaborate names that resembled royal persons.  The tulip trade is still alive and well in the Netherlands.

In this article is a beautiful sixteen-page section of color photographs with scenes from the Netherlands of 1933: buildings and windmills along canals, citizens in their native village costumes (their ordinary dress at that time), and, of course, immense fields of spectacularly blooming tulips.  "Tulips burst forth in splendor, only to yield to the sickle.  To the Dutch cultivator, the bulb is the thing.  The blossoms are merely indicators of the health of the plants.  However gorgeous, the flowers must be mown down and used as fertilizer for the beds.  Roots are shipped throughout the world, and new varieties often bring large sums of money to the producers," (photo caption, p. 329).

With regards to transportation, I don't think bicycling caught on in America - ever - the way it has been used in other countries for a family's chief mode of transportation.  "Bicycles outnumber motorcars in the Netherlands.  People of all stations ride to work, or shop or go calling on them.  One reason for their popularity is the flat country, where a hill is as much of a curiosity as a windmill would be to most Americans," (photo caption, p. 337).

The view of the countryside from an airplane resembles English or Irish rectangular plots of land except, instead of fences, the plots are bordered by canals.  There were no roads for trucking or automobiles.  Products and people were transported by canal in boats and barges.  The city of Amsterdam, like the city of Venice, Italy, is built on islands with canals separating them.  "With the dam at the center, the principal canals (grachts) are built in concentric circles.  Streets radiate in all directions, crossing the waterways on stone arches.

My tulips in bloom at the corner of my house, April 2014.  A lovely spot of spring color!