ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Gift of Val St. Lambert Crystal Vase with Tulips + Memories

Updated on December 13, 2017
Peggy W profile image

My grandpa loved gardening and taught me a lot. To this day, I enjoy puttering around in our garden, growing plants for beauty and food.

Side view of tulip against a black mat
Side view of tulip against a black mat | Source

Tulips

A good friend of ours gifted us with a beautiful arrangement of blooming tulips when she and her husband recently came to have dinner at our home. She has been known to bring the same flowers in the past and she knows that tulips are among my husband's most favorite of flowers.

The memories of this latest gift will linger longer than most because in addition to photos that I took of them, the tulips were in a vase of Val St. Lambert crystal.

The crystal vase did look prettier than normal and it was heavier, but no further thought was given to the container of tulips as we had additional company that night and it was simply placed on the buffet in the dining room adding much to the décor for that special evening of dining, friendship and fun.

Interior photo of tulip - Gorgeous tulip...thank you Pat!
Interior photo of tulip - Gorgeous tulip...thank you Pat! | Source

Of course I had to fill the vase each day as cut tulips are thirsty drinkers of water. As the tulips continued to open and droop such as is their fashion, they became even prettier as the days passed.

The photos pictured here are those very same same tulips.

The 18 tulips in the Val Saint Lambert vase
The 18 tulips in the Val Saint Lambert vase | Source

Val Saint Lambert

Finally the day had come to put the tulips onto our compost pile and wash the vase. It was then that I discovered the additional gift of that evening...the fact of the vase being an expensive crystal Val Saint Lambert creation. Thank you Pat!

Val Saint Lambert is a well known crystal manufacturer which originated in 1826 in Belgium and which has been creating beautiful crystal pieces ever since that time. It got its name of Val Saint Lambert due to the fact of it first being created in an abandoned abbey of that same name.

The abbey was undoubtedly named after St. Lambert who was a bishop in the City of Maastricht in The Netherlands and who was killed in the year 705. Maastricht is only a couple of miles from the border of Belgium. So much for that brief history lesson!

This post commemorates that most thoughtful of beautiful gifts and will offer lasting views of the tulips for a much longer length of time than their brief sojourn from bulb to plant to glorious bloom would otherwise entail because of these photos taken in the days following that most generous of gifts.

Closeup of the inside of a tulip flower
Closeup of the inside of a tulip flower | Source

Tulip Memories

For one period of our lives, my husband and I attended many different fundraising balls and gala occasions in Houston.

On several occasions I could not attend one of those festive events and we had several good friends who were "approved dates" for my husband. We have kidded about the "approved date" list for years. Several friends happily volunteered to be on that special roster.

One time our dear friend Pat who was widowed at the time accompanied my husband to a Symphony Ball. The flowers adorning all the elaborately decorated tables that particular year were tulips which was when she first learned of my husband's fondness for that flower. She never forgot and has subsequently gifted us with those flowers numerous times.

My paternal grandmother as a young girl
My paternal grandmother as a young girl | Source

Going Back Further...

The youthful lady pictured above was my paternal grandmother as a young girl. This was her confirmation picture.

From the time I first remember her she lived in a home on a lake in Okauchee, Wisconsin. Her husband had built that home for her as well as a string of cottages that were utilized for rental properties.

My grandparents had terraced the hillside going down to the lake with rocks and had many perennial plants sowed into the ground there and also up around the house. Apparently in its day, it was quite the showplace as viewed from the lake.

Needless to say tulips and other bulb plants like iris were among the mixture of plants.

Tulips in northern climates like Wisconsin bloom in the Spring of the year. In fact sometimes their foliage peeks through some lingering snow on the ground and they are often some of the first bright colors forecasting the end of a blustery winter and warmer days ahead. Thus, they are not only welcomed for their unique beauty but also as a harbinger of other flowering plants that eventually brightened the landscape.

My mother tells me that her parents also always grew tulips at their home in Milwaukee. She often proudly took the first big bouquet of tulips to her school teacher in the Spring of the year from cuttings in her parent's yard.

Children often took bouquets to their teachers back then and they would adorn the teacher's desk at the front of the classroom. It cheered up the classroom and of course the teacher would profusely thank the child bringing the bouquet to her (most teachers back then were female) which would make the child feel good.

Closeup of tulip petals
Closeup of tulip petals | Source

Wisconsin to Texas and Back

I had grown up until the age of just turning 13 in Wisconsin before my parents moved our family to Texas.

After getting married my husband was promoted and it necessitated moving from Houston to central Wisconsin where we lived for about 4 years before getting transferred back to Houston, Texas. He was in the paper distribution business at the time and Wisconsin happened to house the home office for the company. He returned to Houston to run the local division of the paper company after having been on the corporate marketing team.

What does this have to do with tulips?

My grandmother shared some of her tulip bulbs with us and we planted about 75 to 100 of them which became a bright red spot of color in our backyard each Spring.

Our home in Wisconsin Rapids
Our home in Wisconsin Rapids | Source

Tulips are bulbous plants that rapidly spread in the ground and need to be thinned out every so often or the blooms get smaller as the bulbs become crowded. Prior to leaving Wisconsin, we had shared hundreds of these tulip bulbs from my grandmother with neighbors and friends.

By now there should literally be thousands of tulips in the Wisconsin Rapids area of the country that stemmed from my grandmother's home on Okauchee Lake.

Unfortunately where we now live in Texas, tulip bulbs do not naturalize and spread with the resulting new blooms each year without a great deal of effort. One would have to dig them up after they bloom, store them and refrigerate them for several months prior to planting each year to give them that dormant period that they require.

For us it is simply easier to purchase blooming pots of tulips or bouquets each year and enjoy the brief but brilliant splash of their colorful company.

Tulips in Pella, Iowa

When my husband lived in Iowa as a youth, he and his family often visited Pella each Spring as there was an annual Tulip Festival held there.

Pella, Iowa is a cute little town that also features some windmills.

A
Pella, Iowa:
Pella, IA 50219, USA

get directions

Holland Tulips

Most people associate the country of Holland with tulips and for good reason. Millions and millions of tulips are raised commercially in Holland and exported all around the globe. It must be quite a sight to be visiting there when the fields are ablaze with blooming tulips of various sizes, shapes and hues.

Tulips actually originated in Asia before spreading to other countries in Europe and beyond. They come in many different species and sizes as well as colors.

Tulips can be found almost year round as the bulbs can be forced to grow by simulating the natural growing environment which includes periods of cold and dormancy in addition to the correct fertile soil conditions, moisture and light.

Hope you liked this tribute to our friend Pat who gave us these gorgeous tulips in a Val St. Lambert crystal vase pictured in this post and which also generated some memories for us of the near and distant past.

Which are your favorite flowers?

See results

Photos of tulips

Click thumbnail to view full-size
Additional tulip gift from Pat and JohnTulip gift from Pat and JohnCloseup photo of tulipCloseup photo of tulipCloseup photo of tulipCloseup photo of tulip
Additional tulip gift from Pat and John
Additional tulip gift from Pat and John | Source
Tulip gift from Pat and John
Tulip gift from Pat and John | Source
Closeup photo of tulip
Closeup photo of tulip | Source
Closeup photo of tulip
Closeup photo of tulip | Source
Closeup photo of tulip
Closeup photo of tulip | Source
Closeup photo of tulip
Closeup photo of tulip | Source

© 2009 Peggy Woods

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)