You may know that I grew up in Holland, Michigan – the home of Tulip Time.  Needless to say I know a few things about tulips!  In honor of my hometown and the fact that this week that hometown is full of tulips and parades and tourists, I give you the 101 on tulips.

Season: Tulips are in season November through May but you can get them year round for a price.

Cost: The cost of tulips is primarily dependent on season and variety.  Expect to pay upwards of $3 for a Dutch tulip in season and $5 for a French tulip or Parrot tulip in season.  Expect to pay more (possibly a LOT more) if you are importing them when they are out of season.

Varieties: There are a few different varieties of tulips that are used in floral design:

- Dutch or standard tulips.  Dutch tulips are the the most common tulips.  They have shorter stems, clean petals and a compact head of 1 to 2 inches.

- French tulips.  French tulips have longer, graceful stems – often nearly 2 feet long.  Their heads are longer than Dutch tulips as well, often over 2 inches.  They have clean petals like their Dutch cousins.

- Parrot tulips.  Parrot or Novelty tulips have large heads and ruffly, fringed or curled petals.  They also often have bi-colored or multi colored petals.

Colors: Tulips come in every color except blue and black including white, yellow, orange, pale pink, dark pink, red, purple and bi-colored depending on the variety.  There are ‘black’ tulips that are actually very deep red or burgundy.

Hardiness: Tulips are not a hardy flower once they are out of water but they show their weakness most quickly in the stems rather than petals.  Tulips almost always must be wired so they stay straight and their heads don’t flop over.

Pairings: They are gorgeous on their own of course and I think tulips pair well with most flowers – they have the nifty ability to appear modern or gardeny depending on what other flowers they are matched with.

Good Things to Know: Tulips are commonly associated with the Netherlands but were actually first cultivated in Turkey.  The word tulip is derived from the Turkish word for turban.  Tulips are still the national flower of Turkey.

Keep tulips away from daffodils – the sap of daffodils is poisonous to tulips.

Cut tulips are kind of cool in that they continue to grow in length after they are cut – up to an inch a day!  They are also like sunflowers in that they are phototropic in that they will grow towards the light.  Those two things must be taken into consideration when placing arrangements in the sun.

Next up on Flowers 101: Lily of the Valley

Picture credits
top row: Grogan Studios, Knot for Life, The Knot, The Knot
bottom row: The Knot, Pure Joy Flowers, Arena Flowers, Orangery Flowers

Tags: flowers, flowers 101, tulips, wedding flowers

This entry was posted on Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 9:00 am and is filed under Flowers 101. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.