For Brits it’s poppies, but for today it’s the Netherlands’ turn to display their flower, the tulips on 80 years since Arnhem.
The peace poppy is immortalised because of a Canadian officer reflecting on how only it survived the Flemish mud as soldiers fell.
But the story of the tulip, just one of many, is less travelled.
And now with apologies to Robert Burns and his ‘red, red rose’ and William Wordsworth and his ‘golden daffodils’ but it is the tulip which is the king of all flowers.
It is, of course, ubiquitous in the Netherlands and even out of his spring season you’ll see these hooded wonders wherever you go.
Whether you’re arriving in by plane into Schiphol Airport and your eyes are diverted towards House of Tulips.
In the fields obviously and markets, and also in the fascinating Tulip Museum in Amsterdam.
Where, in truth, most of my knowledge about this peripatetic plant originates.
Crowning glory
The tulip, for those who haven’t heard me extol its virtues before hails from the foothills of the Himalayas.
And came to the Netherlands from the Ottoman Empire where it was known as the tülbend, or turban.
Revered for its beauty it was passed around the royal courts of Europe and became a huge status symbol.
It helped, of course, that it was perfect for the damp, flatlands of the Netherlands.
Put the two together and remembering that the Dutch had become the mercantile masters of Europe.
And soon the most exclusive tulips were passing hands for the price of a canal townhouse in the Netherlands’ commercial powerhouse.
Until, of course, the market imploded and the Dutch economy was ruined in what was the first trade market bubble.
Manna in the Hongerwinter
Not to blame the tulip though but rather the greedy money grabbers because when it came to the Dutch darkest hour the tulip became manna from heaven.
When the poor people of the by-now occupied German territory facing up to the Hongerwinter, or Hunger winter, of 1944-45.
When the Germans burnt the fields, turned again to the flower.
And boiled the bulb for sustenance.
All of which resonates with the Dutch to this day and is why their liberation from the Germans that winter is being marked with tulips.
The next generation
The soldiers’ story
