Books on Tulips |
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| Tiptoe, through the tulips |
Books on Tulips.
Tulips have always been capable of inducing fever in the heart of those most rational of people, the Dutch.
Originating in hot, dry Central Asia and Turkey, there are around 100 different types of tulips. Grown from a bulb, this plant inspired obsessional collecting fever in seventeenth-century Holland, with a tulip bubble that claimed as many scalps as our own dot-com version.
Tulips are particularly valued in beds and borders, and their brilliant colours can be used by gardeners to paint patterns of great intricacy. Variegation, or mixed colouring, can be caused by a virus, leading to unpredictable colouring. Tulips have proved one of the most inspirational of plants for painters and novelists through the ages.
Read about the history of the tulip in these books, find out how to plant and look after your tulip garden, or just look at beautiful photos of tulips.
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Tulips: Species and Hybrids for the Gardener |
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Richard Wilford is the collections manager responsible for alpines, bulbs and herbaceous perennials at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, so what he doesn't know about tulips we don't need to know. Species tulips are becoming more popular for beds and containers and unlike garden hybrids the species tulips can be left to flower each year. The book deals with the plant, its cultivation, history and classification, before turning to the different varieties available. Wilford is gratifyingly frank about the varieties he finds nasty. 'Some are just plain ugly' he writes bluntly. 'I do not like double-flowered tulips,' he admits, but broad-mindedly provides planting and cultivation tips.
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The Tulip |
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| Pavord's passion for the flower is evident from the opening pages of the book, as she scrambles across the hillsides of Crete in search of an obscure, indigenous purple tulip, whose discovery leads into Pavord's extraordinary history of this beautiful yet enigmatic flower. From its adoption by the Ottoman sultans of Istanbul through the Tulip Bubble of 1637 which foretold our own Internet bubble, Pavord tells the story of this gorgeous plant. She does get a bit bogged down in the second half, so unless you are a true obsessive, skip it and just enjoy the illustrations. | |
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Tulip Fever |
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| Tulip speculation and adultery during the 1630s tulip boom. Fictional fun. | |
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That's it for this category. Click here to suggest a title and we'll do our best to review it.
