| A Tulip Frenzy That Blossomed Into Disaster |
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By Maureen Gilmer
Do It Yourself Network
Everybody wanted one and they spent millions in investment capital to get it. The market exploded. With each new introduction the investors went crazy, scrambling to get their piece and sell it for a hundred times the cost. Small businesses were sold to buy into the market. One investor traded his house, grocery budget for a year and the family silver to jump on board. Are we talking about dot-com builders, NASDAQ aficionados and investment capitalists? This frenzy actually occurred in 1630s Holland, and it wasn't digital real estate but a small flower bulb that seduced the Dutch elite. It was such an extraordinary event that even today, many centuries later, Tulipmania helps explain what happened to the once-sky-high NASDAQ and so many dot-coms. In 1637, the bottom dropped out of the tulip market over a 60-day period. Dutch traders were so overly invested that a vast number of them were ruined. Just like today's ripple effect of the dot-com collapse, the bulb disaster plunged Europe into an economic depression. Huge collections of nearly worthless tulips became the genesis of the modern Dutch flower-bulb industry of today. We can only hope that the remaining NASDAQ companies will regroup and someday realize a similar profit. Tulips are native to Turkey and were grown by the sultans of the Ottoman Empire. While traveling there in the spring of 1554, the ambassador of the Holy Roman Empire noticed some bright flowers in the Persian gardens. These he shipped from Istanbul to Europe and were among the first tulips to reach Europe and the Royal Medicinal Garden in Vienna, Austria. There, Carolus Clusius began producing the exotic forms and colors that so captured the hearts of the Dutch. These original tulips were species that grew wild in the well-drained and sunny, arid hills of Asia Minor. They are adapted to a long, hot summer, with a cold dry winter. They are often called "botanical tulips," and named with genus and species such as Tulipa clusiana. Modern hybrids go by a single varietal name such as Rembrant. Botanical tulips retain the original vigor and disease resistance of wildflowers. They need not be lifted and will grow into large colonies with time. There is an excellent collection of heirloom tulips offered by Old House Gardens through their mail-order catalog and Web site (www.oldhousegardens.com). The catalog is a gold mine of information on a wide range of antique flower bulbs that are proven performers. These not only belong in period landscapes, they are the lazy gardener's solution for high-profile, low-maintenance color in garden beds. They are particularly well-suited to naturalizing, adding color amid the white or yellow daffodil. Old House Gardens is a source of rare Tulipa.clusiana (1607) and other reliable and long-lived species and early hybrids. Consider Tulipa acuminata (1720), with cream- and red-striped flowers that has since died out in the wild. There is also the yellow Florentine tulip, Tulipa sylvestris (1597), which was grown at Monticello and has naturalized in the old Dutch communities of Pennsylvania. Tulipmania remains one of the more fascinating events in horticultural history. Valentine's Day tulips are a powerful reminder that behind these flashy hybrids are the solid species that stand up to the winds of change, gradually growing into ever-larger colonies. And when it comes to the NASDAQ, investment in solid companies will grow at a similarly modest rate, unlike the flashy upstarts with their short-term gains that precede the inevitable crash. (Maureen Gilmer is a horticulturist and author of 14 books. E-mail her at mo@moplants.com . Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service)
RESOURCES :
Rooted in the Spirit: Exploring Inspirational Gardens
Model: 0878339388
Author: Maureen Gilmer
(1997)
Warren Taylor Publishing
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