105 Amazing Pictures of Tulips - Tulip Photography at its Best

I was reading Alexandre Dumas's The Black Tulip a while back and it was then I had a sudden fancy for tulips. Since they do not grow here in my place, thought I could share some nice pictures of tulips. Here goes my 'virtual' tulip collection...

Tulips are perennial plants that grow from bulbs.Tulips have wax coated strap-shaped leaves although they have only a few. A typical tulip plant will have a height between 4 inches to 28 inches. The plants are known for their flowers which blooms in spring.

It is said that the tulips are first cultivated in Persia in 10th century During the Ottoman Empire, numerous tulips were cultivated and bred. It is believed that first tulips were grown in the United States in 1847 by Richard Sullivan Fay in the Fay Estate near Spring Pond.

Today, tulip festivals are conducted in many places during the spring season, England, Netherlands, North America just to name a few.

Growing tulips is a process that should be done very carefully. Tulip bulbs are planted in well drained soil around late summer and fall. Tulips grown from seeds may take 5 to 8 years to bloom. But with bulbs, its easy.

Currently there are over 150 species and 3000 varieties of tulips.

A simple guide on how to grow tulips

"Tulips normally have one flower per stem, however a few species have up to 4 flowers on a single stem."

Tulip bulbs can be bloomed forcefully by exposing it to cold temperatures. Even in refrigerator.

Tulip petals are edible

" During WWII, some people in the Netherlands were forced to eat tulips because there wasn't any other food."

"The tulip is the national flower or Turkey and Afghanistan."

“A tulip doesn't strive to impress anyone. It doesn’t struggle to be different than a rose. It doesn’t have to. It is different. And there’s room in the garden for every flower. You didn’t have to struggle to make your face different than anyone else’s on earth. It just is. You are unique because you were created that way. Look at little children in kindergarten. They’re all different without trying to be. As long as they’re unselfconsciously being themselves, they can’t help but shine. It’s only later, when children are taught to compete, to strive to be better than others, that their natural light becomes distorted.”

--Marianne Williamson

"Life isn't a tiptoe through the tulips."

--Shannon Hoon

"How can you be content to be in the world like tulips in a garden, to make a fine show, and be good for nothing."
--Mary Astell

"Flowers heal me. Tulips make me happy. I keep myself surrounded by them as soon as they start coming to the island from Canada, and after that when they come from the fields in La Connor, not far from where I live."
--Rebecca Wells