Thursday Reading Comp
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Tulips, Turkey, and Wooden Shoes
By Mary L. Bushong |
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1 Have
you ever wondered what tulips, Turkey, and wooden shoes have in
common? Well, if you are talking about the turkey bird, not much.
If you are talking about the country of Turkey, they have a lot
in common. It's quite a story.
2 You
might think that tulips come from Holland, but that is not true.
Tulips grew wild in Turkey, up in the mountains. You can even
find some wild tulips growing today in the mountains of Europe.
Most of those are very different from the kinds we grow in our
gardens.
3 The
Turkish people were cultivating tulips more than 1,000 years ago.
Long before they were grown in European gardens, they were
popular in Turkey. The name tulip came from the headdress or head
wrapping men wore, the turban or toliban. When that name was
changed to Latin, it became "tulipa."
4 In
the late 1500's the bulbs were imported to Europe and especially
to Holland. If you look at old color pictures or "plates" of
tulips, you will see that some of the flowers were striped. The
broken lines of color showed that the bulb was diseased, but
people did not know that. They would try to grow them for those
color patterns. Now you can buy healthy bulbs with those
colors.
5 According
to tradition, the first tulip bulbs were brought to Holland by
Carolus Clusius or Charles de L'Ecluse. He was a botanist (a man
who knows about plants). He moved from Germany to Holland to
become the head of a botanical garden at the University of
Leiden. He brought his collection of tulips and planted them at
the school.
6 Clusius
thought the tulips were good to study as part of science. He
would not sell or let anyone else have them. Some people thought
they would be good to grow and took matters into their own hands.
A few of them sneaked into the garden and stole some of the
collection. Up until this point, only plants that could be used
for medicine or food were thought to be important, but the tulip
was included with them. That is how important the flower became
to the Dutch people.
7 At
first only the rich could afford to buy tulips because they were
so rare. They were grown in small plots, but that changed as
people reproduced them. By 1624 people were so crazy for tulips
that a single tulip bulb sold for an amount that would equal
$1,500 U.S. today. There were just twelve of these maroon and
white bulbs available. Some bulbs sold for more than the cost of
a house!
8 In
1637, "The Foolish Tulip Trade" bubble burst. Dishonest people
sold notes, promising a certain tulip in the summer and fall when
the bulbs were out of the ground for planting. Many of these
pieces of paper were sold all over the country like it was part
of a stock market. Sometimes there were no real bulbs to go with
the paper. People who thought themselves rich one night woke up
the next morning with nothing. The market for tulips had
crashed.
9 While
the Dutch have kept their love affair with tulips, they no longer
cost a lot of money. Now just about everyone can enjoy their
beauty in the spring. Perhaps you have some of them in your
garden.
Copyright © 2013
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