Free Virtual Tulip Festival: Here are the Deets

Tulip lovers – here’s a fun opportunity.

Tickets for GATHER:Virtual Tulip Festival are available today!  20,000 tickets will be free for the event held March 27 and 28th. Here’s the website – http://www.gathertulips.com/optin1611931195476

And guess who will be one of the florists offering fun with tulips? Ana and Anais Vivas of Aniska Designs who I, along with my other judges, just awarded first prize at the Fleurs de Villes show at the Bal Harbour Shops in Miami, Florida.

Another favorite who will be part of the festivities is Beth O’Reilly who is also so sweet and talented. Adore her!

Others who will be part of the fun are Michelle Summers, Sue Davis, Bronchiole Hansboro and the irrespressible Sarah Campbell, who will be the host.

But you have to hurry so go to www.gathertulips.com for your free ticket. Flowerbulbs.com will also share some videos for you tulip lovers out there.

This will be a wonderful opportunity to see gorge videos and pictures of tulips as well as learn how to arrange them, care for them and understand them.

Originally growing wild in the valleys of the Tian Shan Mountains, tulips were cultivated in Constantinople as early as 1055. By the 15th century, tulips were among the most prized flowers; becoming the symbol of the Ottomans. While tulips had probably been cultivated in Persia from the tenth century, they did not come to the attention of the West until the sixteenth century, when Western diplomats to the Ottoman court observed and reported on them. In fact, the name is derived from the “turban.”

They were rapidly introduced into Europe and became a frenzied commodity during Tulip mania – where bulbs were someitmes valued more than homes. It was between 1634 – 1637 was when this craziness occurred.

And of course, tulips were frequently depicted in Dutch paintings as still lives and have become associated with the Netherlands, the major producer for world markets, ever since.

In the seventeenth century Netherlands, during the time of the Tulip mania, an infection of tulip bulbs by what was called the tulip breaking virus created variegated – my favorite – patterns in the tulip flowers that were much admired and valued. While truly broken tulips do not exist anymore, the closest available specimens today are part of the group known as the Rembrandts – so named because Rembrandt painted some of the most admired breaks of his time.

Now of course because of their popularity as both an ornamental garden plant and as a cut flower, tulips are bred all over the world and come in thousands of varieties. Furthermore, it’s spring so they are now going to be in bloom.

This virtual festival should get you in the mood to embrace those tulips around you.

As we say at flowerpowerdaily – Petal On.  And for today, #gathertulips.