Country Life | Stuff and Nonsense
Photography by Richard Cannon
June 5, 2024
Tulip fever
Polly Nicholson had been growing ordinary tulips at her home in Wiltshire for several years and establishing her florist business Bayntun Flowers when a chance purchase from a J. Parker’s catalogue of a Tulipa ‘Dom Pedro’ bulb changed everything. ‘It’s a Historic tulip dating from 1911 and, when it flowered, I discovered that it had a patina unlike that of any tulip I had ever seen.’
A visit to the flower paintings of the Dutch Golden Age at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam was followed by a trip to Hortus Bulborum in Limmen. ‘Realising that there was such a thing as a living museum of tulips sowed the seed of the habit of a lifetime. I had never seen Dutch Historic tulips en masse.’
‘It had a patina unlike that of any tulip I had ever seen’
Today, Mrs Nicholson has about 100 different Dutch Historic tulips dating from the late 16th century to the present day. The oldest is ‘Duc van Tol Red and Yellow’ of about 1595. ‘Breeders have a depth of pigment that is so distinct, especially the early-20th-century ones in their brooding and bruised “art shades”. There is nothing primary about those colours.’
Unlike Breeders, no two Broken tulips are the same. By contrast, symmetry matters a great deal with English Florists’ tulips, of which she has dozens of cultivars. Mrs Nicholson also collects species tulips, as described in her new book The Tulip Garden: Growing and Collecting Species, Rare and Annual Varieties. The name comes from the fact that they were bred in this country from the start of the 19th century. ‘English Florists’ tulips are much more elegant and refined,’ she says. They come in three colourways: Rose, Bybloemen and Bizarre, which can all be represented by a Breeder or Broken flower. They are never available commercially, but are distributed by members of the Wakefield and North of England Tulip Society (established in 1836), of which she became a member in 2016. ‘They are absolute masters of what they It had a patina unlike that of any tulip I had ever seen do and so generous with their knowledge, drawing on centuries of first-hand experience.’
Which is your favourite? ‘A flamed English Florists’ tulip, ‘James Wild’, the first I grew. It has a mahogany cup on a cadmium yellow base. I love its simplicity and purity.’ TD
June 5, 2024 | Country Life
