Tulips For Jessica Simpson
Wesley Berry

Born July 10, 1980, singer Jessica Simpson can claim the lovely
spring tulip as her birth flower. Fortunately for her, her rise
to popularity didn't involve the treachery and intrigue that the
tulip's rise did.

Once a wild flower in Central Asia, the tulip began its life as a
domestic flower around 1000 AD when the Turks began planting and
growing it. (The term "tulip" is derived for the Turkish word for
turban.) Then, in 1593, biologist Carolus Clusius introduced the
tulip to Western Europe and the Netherlands when he planted
the first bulb in Holland. Clusius was the director of Hortus
Botanicus in Leiden, which was the oldest botanical garden in
Europe. While working for the University of Leiden to research
medicinal plants, he received a gift of some bulbs from his
friend Ogier de Busbecq, the Ambassador to Constantinople.

It wasn't long before the tulip gained amazing popularity as a
decorative gardening flower. It became one of the most heavily
traded products, especially in Holland. Because the tulip was so
popular, its bulbs commanded an astounding price on the market.
During the height of its popularity in late 1636 and early 1637,
tulip bulbs sold for such high prices that they sometimes cost
more than the houses they were grown around! They were so coveted
that there are reports of a single bulb commanding a price of
$1,500 worth of goods. People were so crazy for tulips that they
sometimes sold their businesses, homes, livestock, and dowries to
cash in on the tulip-trading craze. Unfortunately, with the laws
of supply and demand being what they are, the market could only
hold up so long and when it crashed it took many traders down
with it causing mass bankruptcies and loss of savings. The crash
was so significant that it lead to special governmental rules
concerning the trading of tulips.

Today tulips continue to be a very popular, but thankfully they
don't command such a high price. Bulbs are usually planted in the
fall, with October being the best month for planting to yield
flowers in the spring. They come in a wide array of colors and
varieties. Planting a few different types of tulips that bloom at
different times from late March to late May can allow for
beautiful flowers for up to six weeks.

Tulips make wonderful flowers for cutting and displaying in a
vase. They do best in clean water and the stems should be trimmed
one to two inches every couple of days to keep them fresh for a
longer period of time. Tulips continue to grow even after they're
cut, so they may twist and bend due to the weight of the blossom
and its desire to move toward light sources. This unique trait
makes them easy to arrange and fun to observe, as they look a
bit different every day.




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Wesley Berry is the President of Wesley Berry Flowers,
a successful multi-million dollar business that was
established in 1946. He is also the Headmaster of the
Professional Florists' Institute, a floral design school
located in Michigan. Visit Wesley Berry Flowers on the
web at http://www.800wesleys.com