TRKNWS-L TULIPS....

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CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Copyright Chicago Tribune 1994
TAG: 9405260056
DATE: Thursday, May 26, 1994 EDITION: NORTH SPORTS FINAL
SECTION: NEWS PAGE: 35 ZONE: N
SOURCE: Reuters.
LENGTH: 78 lines
DATELINE: AMSTERDAM

DUTCH FLOWER POWER
AFTER 400 YEARS, TULIP IS STILL KING

It may be the longest love affair in Dutch history: a 400-year passion
that has ruined the rich, angered the church and inspired paintings,
sculpture and songs.
The object of this mania is an exotic beauty that came to the Netherlands
from Turkey in 1594 and immediately won European hearts: the tulip.
The 400th anniversary of its arrival has set off a fresh bout of flower
fever.
"Of all flowers, the tulip surely wins the prize as the object on which
nature bestows all her beauty and shows the world the most beautiful
embellishments with which the divine author has endowed her," a French
admirer wrote in 1654.
Found originally in Asia Minor, the tulip had become a favorite in
Turkey's decorative gardens by the 15th Century.
The Dutch name for tulips, "tulpen," is said to have sprung from a
translating error. A Flemish-born diplomat who wrote home of the
tulips-"lale" in Turkish-he had seen in Constantinople in 1554, misunderstood
his interpreter, who compared the blooms to a "tulband," Dutch for "turban."
According to tradition, the first bulbs were brought to the Netherlands by
Flemish botanist Carolus Clusius, who cultivated Turkish tulips while working
in Vienna's imperial gardens.
In 1593 Clusius settled in the Dutch town of Leiden and planted tulip
bulbs in a botanical garden.
Clusius had unwittingly sown the seed of "Tulip Mania," the greatest
speculative frenzy the Netherlands has ever known.
Not everyone knew what to do with the strange bulbs. Clusius wrote that
one merchant in Antwerp had some delivered from Constantinople but, unsure
what to use them for, ate some roasted in oil and vinegar and threw the rest
away.
Nearly four centuries later, in World War II, the bulbs became vital
sustenance when many starving Dutch ate them during the 1944-45 "hunger
winter," when population centers were cut off from the south and east, the
main food-growing areas.
At the beginning of the 17th Century, the tulip grew so quickly in
popularity and value that eating it was unthinkable.
Trade in the flower blossomed. By 1633, a single bulb of the scarlet and
white Semper Augustus variety-the most highly prized-cost 5,500 guilders, the
price of a canalside house in a Dutch town, or 37 times the average annual
income of the time.
People from all walks of life plunged into the fray and a huge speculative
bubble was born as bulbs were sold on paper for future delivery and the
contracts themselves soared in value. Land, houses, furniture and livestock
were sold to buy bulbs.
By 1637, the Semper Augustus fetched 30,000 guilders, the price of four
elegant canal houses, according to a recent Dutch book, "The Tulip, Symbol of
Two Nations."
The bubble burst in February 1637 after a rumor swept through Haarlem,
near Amsterdam, that authorities were about to intervene.
Prices plummeted, everyone tried desperately to sell their bulbs and many
people went bankrupt. The clergy-who had railed against tulips because the
petals resembled fashion's ribbons and ruffs-condemned the speculators.
Verses and paintings satirizing the folly began to appear.
The Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem is showing some of these works as part of
an exhibition titled "Tulip Mania," a tribute to 400 years of tulip madness
in the Netherlands.
An example is Jan Brueghel's painting "Parody of the Tulip Mania," which
depicts the speculators as monkeys. Some deal in tulips, others dine on their
profits, while a ruined ape weeps and another urinates on his now worthless
blooms.
To the foreign tourist, it is as much a symbol of the Netherlands as
windmills and clogs. The Dutch exploit the flower to the limit, plastering it
on milk cartons, computers and the track suits of the Dutch Olympic team.
To this day the tulip remains the undisputed king of flowers in the
Netherlands, although it is now sold cheaply from street stalls.

KEYWORDS: NETHERLANDS HISTORY IMAGE

Transmitted: 94-05-26 06:26:58 EDT

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