Stories abound about Tulips

April signifies the month of blooming tulips, when one canwitness tiers of brightly coloured flowers fluttering in the wind, with uprightcup-shaped tulips in radiant hues presenting a kaleidoscopic view.

Despite popular association with Holland, Tulips haveactually originated from Central Asia, growing wild in the valleys of Tuen ShanMountains (bordering China, Afghanistan and Russia). These wild flowers mayhave been cultivated in Turkey during Ottoman period. A popular theoryenvisages Sultan Suleiman importing tulips from remote mountains of Kazakhstanfor cultivation in his imperial gardens. The name itself is derived from aTurkish word ‘tulbend’, meaning turban, due to a close resemblance of itsshape. The flower gained prominence much later in 16th century when it wasintroduced to Netherlands, which is currently the main producer with an annualoutput of around 3 billion bulbs and 150 species spanning across an array ofcolours and shapes.

   

Thus, Dutch Tulips are not native, and happen to becultivated varieties. The credit for introducing tulips to Western Europe goesto Carolus Clusius. He received some flowers from his friend, the Austrianambassador to Ottoman Empire and planted these in the Leiden University ofNetherlands. Bulbs stolen from his private garden provided the base inventoryfor Dutch Tulip industry. Withering in tropical climates, tulips need a coldwinter to bloom in spring. The plants could be cultivated from seeds or bulbsthat grow on a mother bulb. While a bulb grown from a seed would take almost 7years to flower, the bulb itself would give output in a year.  Tulip bulbs, being genetic clones, retain thecolour and shape of their parent. New varieties evolve only from seed-grownplants, which bear a partial resemblance to the flower from which seeds aretaken. This provides ample scope for experimenting and breeding new varietiesand shades of the flower.  While peopleventured with several colour variations, there was an inherent fascination forBlack tulip. Alexandar Dumas used the concept of a bumper prize for the firstgrower of a black tulip in his romantic novel The Black tulip. Tulips alsoadopted a prime place amongst the Dutch painters, who painted the flower indifferent mediums, which have evolved as masterpieces of art.

In 17th Century Netherlands, Tulips became a luxury item anda status symbol. Admiration of the flower, coupled with its popularity andshortage of supply created a speculative market for tulips and their bulbs.This led to a frenzy where the excessive demand for tulip bulbs caused these tobe sold for enormous prices. Traders were awed by broken tulips  ones whose petals were striped ormulticoloured rather than having a single shade. The craving for broken bulbsand new varieties led to an economic interest for these traders. With slowincrease in potential bulb stocks, collectors started paying as much as 10years worth of a skilled workers salary for a tulip bulb. Semper Augustus, withstripes of scarlet and white, the most sought after variety commanded a priceequivalent to a river-side villa in Amsterdam. Investors started trading in contracts promising bulbs in future. Suchcontracts were sold and re-sold at further increased prices, leading to aheavily inflated market. Since the bulbs were sold by weight, an investor hadto just plant a bulb and wait for it to increase in size. Bulbs bought for acouple of guilders would sell for hundreds in a few months, and would changeownership several times before even their first bloom. Subsequently, the feversubsided, forward contracts started getting dishonoured and the prices crashed.While some folks had made profits, many lost their savings, as this bubbleburst. It needed a government intervention to declare the forward contractsnull and void. This is the first recorded incidence of speculative commoditytrading. The entire Dutch economy faced a crash and could not recover for yearsto come.

Stories abound about Tulips. The Turks had a strict lawwherein trade of tulips outside the capital was punishable by exile, and atulip bulb was valued more than a human life. In Netherlands, a sailor whomistook a rare tulip bulb for an onion and ate it with his sandwich was chargedwith felony and imprisoned.  There arenarratives of chimney-sweeps striking overnight riches by trading in tulipbulbs during the Tulip-mania period.

This brings us to the Tulip festival being held in Srinagarthis April. Nestled on the foots of Zabarwan hills over an area of 30 acres,the Tulip garden at Srinagar is our own parallel to Kaukenhof, the Worldslargest flower garden which houses a huge collection of Tulip varieties.

Tulips were possibly brought to Kashmir during Afghan ruleand then occupied a key position amongst local flora during the subsequenteras.  Memories take me back to the dayswhen Tulips were mostly found at Mughal gardens, school picnics to thesegardens being a much awaited annual affair. It was at the beginning of thiscentury when bulbs were imported from Netherlands to craft an indigenous gardenon the lines of globally renowned European counterparts. The Tulip garden whichwas inaugurated in 2007 is the largest landscaping project of the state sinceMughal period. Commendable efforts by teams of our horticulturists andgardeners has yielded an awesome result of 1.2 million Tulip bulbs with almost60 different varieties, and the garden getting adjudged amongst top five Tulipdestinations by World Tulip summit society. Over these years, the garden hasevolved as an artistic masterpiece. Should there be a remake or sequel ofSilsila, the producer doesn’t need to rush to Amsterdam, our own Tulip gardenwould be a much favoured choice.

For most of us, Tulip festival has become an annual ritualwhich we look forward to eagerly. It has gained extreme popularity across thenation, and every year we observe an increased footfall of visitors, bothnational as well as international. The tourists take back a message of nature,peace and amity rather and the fact that Kashmir is not only about conflict.

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