Tulipmania Art

Tulip bulbs have actually never been purposefully regarded as a food item until World War II, when during the winter of 1944-1945, the Netherlands were forced by the nazis into the Hunger Winter.

Considering the rapidly depleting food resources of the country, the bulb stocks came up as a saving solution. It turned out, that the lack of manpower made it impossible for the flower growers to plant their bulbs in the autumn, and while the hyacinth and lily bulbs proved to be highly toxic, the tulip bulbs, on the contrary, proved to be quite comestible, if prepared properly, so the tulip bulb stocks helped the country out of famine.
The Dutch government published a guide on how to prepare tulip bulbs correctly, instructing people to first cut them in half and remove their flower germs, which accumulate toxins. The guide contained as well various recipes of soups, porridge, fried, roasted or mashed tulip bulbs and even ways of making flour from tulip bulbs, for baking bread.

Hard times are luckily long behind, but the tulip bulb has preserved its status of food item. Modern cuisine has explored an reinvented the tulip bulb as a culinary treat, which can nowadays be found on the menu of luxury restaurants.

The tulip season in the Netherlands officially starts long before the gardens get coloured by the satiny tulip blooms and it happens on the National Tulip Day or Nationale Tulpendag in Dutch. Every year on the third Saturday of January an enormous pop-up garden, comprising 200,000 tulips is set up by the Dutch tulip growers on Dam Square in Amsterdam, inviting everyone to come and pick tulips for free. This is how tulips wake up the spring in peoples’ hearts in the very midst of the winter.

The event is organised by Tulpen Promotie Nederland – a foundation established by over 500 tulip growers in order to promote tulips worldwide.

The construction of the symbolic landmark started in 2014 and its infrastructure is still under development. The structure consists of four islands, the main and largest island is shaped like a tulip calyx, the three other elongated islands form an allegorical stem. The island is observable on the map, as well as from an aerial view as a beautifully blooming lily-flowered tulip.