Growing Tulips

Tulips are bright, colourful flowers that were symbols of status back in the 1600’s

Tulips are flowering plants that form part of the Liliaceae or Lily family. The tulip plant can grow anywhere between 10 to 70 centimetres tall and produces flowers of a variety of colours. Tulip plants have green, waxy textured leaves with bright coloured flowers, which usually contain six petals clustered together.

Tulips are grown worldwide. However, Holland is known to produce some of the most beautiful tulips in the world. In fact, 44,430 acres of Holland's flower bulb farms have been used exclusively for cultivating tulips. Despite being associated with Holland, the flower and its original name, "Laleh" originated in the Persian Empire.

Back in the sixteen hundreds, tulips were only afforded by very wealthy European aristocrats and because they were so expensive, they represented a symbol of status.

Tulips require cold winter seasons in order to grow. They can be cultivated through offsets or seeds from other tulip flowers. A tulip, which has been grown from seed, will only slightly resemble the flower from which the seeds were sourced. Tulips flowered from seeds can take anything between five to seven years after planting to flower.

There are many varieties of tulips, with the most common ones being Darwin tulips, Double late tulips, Forsteriana tulips, Parrot tulips and Species tulips.