By: Eva Sheahan
You have heard a lot about roses. The red petals are said to symbolise true love and
romance. However, I want to talk about a different flower; a flower with no prickly thorns on the stem.
Tulips were first cultivated in Persia (Iran) in the 16th century, and were traded to Europe through the Dutch. The Dutch went through a tulip craze, and used the bulbs of tulips as a currency --- at one point, tulips were worth more than gold.
When I arrived at Keukenhof, the world’s largest flower garden, I was in awe of the mass of different colours surrounding me. Growing up in Ottawa, I was used to the Canadian Tulip Festival coming around every spring-- the world’s largest tulip festival. However, nothing could have prepared me for the sublime feeling of staring out into a sea of vivid tulips. There was every shade of tulip I could’ve spun up; light yellow pastel, deep purple, bright orange. I started to understand the tulip craze, as I strolled across the grounds, stopping to smell the flowers.
The Dutch Royal Family sends 10, 000 tulips to Ottawa every year for the festival as a commemoration to Canada for liberating the Netherlands from Nazi occupation in the Second World War and for sheltering the future Queen Juliana during the aforementioned occupation. Tulips are a classic flower that is typically associated with love.6 I felt the friendship and love that tulips symbolise between Canada and the Netherlands while comparing Keukenhof to the flower festival in Ottawa. In the sunshine, observing the couples biking by, the young children running through the bulbs, my best friends beside me, I felt this love that tulips symbolise. Now with Valentine’s Day fast approaching, it is not a rose that I wish for, but a tulip.
Bibliography
“Canadian Tulip Festival.” Ottawa Tourism. Accessed February 12th, 2024.
Carlson, Tara. “A History of Tulips in Holland and the Dutch Trade.” Petal Talk. Accessed February 12th, 2024.
https://www.1800flowers.com/blog/flower-facts/holland-tulips-history-dutch-trade/#:~:te xt=At%20the%20time%2C%20tulip%20bulbs,of%20tulips%20in%20the%20world.
“Deep Historical Roots: the Canadian Tulip Festival.” Ottawa Tourism. May 5th, 2023. https://ottawatourism.ca/en/ottawa-insider/deep-historical-roots-canadian-tulip-festival.
“Keukenhof Gardens- the Dutch Flowering Fields.” Tulip Garden Tickets. Accessed February 12th, 2024. https://www.tulip-garden-tickets.com/keukenhof-gardens-amsterdam/.
Salzmann, Ariel, “Tulips and Coffee” (lecture, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, January 30th, 2024).
“Tulips: the symbolism and colour meaning.” Interflora. Accessed February 12th, 2024.
https://www.interflora.co.nz/Tulips.html#:~:text=The%20most%20known%20meaning% 20of,%2C%20children%2C%20parents%20or%20siblings.