Tulips - the Flowers that Dance

Tulips - bright, cheerful and a beautiful symbol that spring has arrived. I have 6 facts about tulips to share with you, and then I’m going to tell you what I love most about them.

 1 – The largest producer and exporter of tulips is the Netherlands. They export about 3 billion bulbs a year. If you’d like to see the flowers blooming in the Netherlands, the best time to go is mid-April.

 2 – In the 1600’s, tulip bulbs were more valuable than people’s homes.  An average working-class man would have to work for ten years to earn enough to buy one.

 3 – Tulips come in every colour of the rainbow except for blue. There’s also the ‘Queen of the Night’, a tulip that’s so dark it appears black.

 4 – The vase life for tulips is about seven days. Cut the stems at an angle to give them the widest surface area to absorb water, keep the water level in the vase topped up, and place the arrangement in a cool room. Follow these guidelines and they’ll look their best for the longest possible time.

 5 – In the language of flowers, tulips have the general meaning of love and affection, but every colour symbolizes something different. Red - love; purple – royalty; yellow – cheerfulness and hope; pink – caring and well-wishes; white – forgiveness. 

6 - Tulips are the flower for the 11th wedding anniversary. With their overall meaning of love and affection you can’t go wrong with a big bouquet of any colour.

So here’s what I love most about tulips. I love how once you arrange them in a vase they don’t stay put. The stems bend and curve and move in all sorts of directions. I once heard this described as ‘the tulips are dancing in their vase’. I love that. It’s the perfect image to go with the movement the tulips make.

There are a couple of scientific reasons why tulips ‘dance’. The first is they continue to grow about two inches after they’re cut, and the other is they’re reaching toward the light. Many people want to stop this quirk of nature and they’ll try everything from putting a pinhole in the stem, to adding a penny or vodka into the water to stop it from happening. I say, instead of trying to stifle the dance, embarace it!