Meet the tulips

There once was a flower that was unable to settle down anywhere. From the mountains in Kazakhstan, the flower bulb wandered about in Persia, China and Turkey. Until a Dutch scientists took the bulb with him to a small European country. There the flower enjoyed the climate and the soil, and the inhabitants immediately fell in love with the flower and soon designated it a national symbol. It all sounds like a fairy tale, but this is the true story of the tulip. 

Find out more about the Dutch flower icon

Since the 17th century, tulips have been transforming the Dutch landscape into a colourful tapestry every spring. A large part of these – some 1.5 million tulips – wind up in gardens and vases the world over via Dutch auctions. 

Worth a visit: Holland's botanical gardens