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The History of the Tulip

. Despite its long association with the Netherlands, the tulip actually originates in the Tian Shan mountain region of the Himalaya.

. Tulips came to Holland via Turkey, in the 16th century, where sultans organised tulip parties each spring.

.The first tulips actually appeared in Antwerp and Mechelen around 1560 and, in 1593, were installed in the Hortus Botanicus in Leiden, by Carolus Clusius.

. ?Tulip Mania? reached its peak in Holland between 1634 and 1637, when one bulb could fetch more than a thousand guilders, more than the cost of a canal house in Amsterdam.

.The striped tulips, so popular in the 17th century, got their colouring from a virus, transferred by aphids, only discovered in 1931. These days, multi-coloured tulips are bred to look that way.

There are almost 2000 varieties (or cultivars) sold commercially and about 100 new cultivars are added each year