A green-fingered friend gave me some tulip bulbs yesterday. She told me their names and let me choose the colours, so when it's stopped raining I'm going to plant them in pots. I love the fact that while the bulbs are sleeping over winter I will probably forget all about them until they start to pop up in Spring. Then they'll add a profusion of colour to my garden and will remind me of my friend.
The tulip comes in hundreds of varieties, colours and shapes, and with wonderful names like Queen of Night, Apricot Parrot, Christmas Pearl, Texas Flame, Doll's Minuet and Kingsblood, but was originally a wild flower growing in central Asia. It was first cultivated by the Turks as early as 1,000 AD. In the 16th century, at the time of the Ottoman Empire, the sultan demanded cultivation of particular blooms for his pleasure. The name 'tulip' came from the Turkish word for turban - not hard to see why looking at the picture above. Click here to read about the 'tulipmania' that followed.
Writing prompts:
1. Look at the picture above - what comes to mind? Write it down.
2. Write about a treasured gift given to you by a friend.
3. Choose one of the tulip names above and use it as a trigger for your writing.
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