Mystique Earth: The Largest Tulip Garden in the world

A brief description about Keukenhof Garden:

Place: Keukenhof Garden, Amsterdam.

Quantity of Flowers: 7 million bulbs of flowers

Varieties of Tulips: 800

Size: 32 hectares

Historical aspect:

Image: Carolus Clusius

Perhaps, one cannot leave out the pioneering botanist, Carolus Clusius (Feb 19, 1526 – April 4, 1609) when speaking of the history of Tulips. It was due to him that Netherlands had earned the name as icon of tulips. He was a man who studied medicine but never practiced it for his heart was all the more at the field of botany.

1573: Appointed as prefect of the imperial medical garden in Vienna; Gentleman of the Imperial Chamber

1593: Appointed as the Professor

Achievements:

1. Created one of the earliest formal botanical gardens and currently the oldest in the world, the Hortus Academicus in Leyden, Europe that contained 1000 types of plants over a site about 35 – 40 metres wide.

Image: Hortus Academicus in Leyden, Europe had 1000 types of plants

2. He is also remembered for his observations on the “Tulip breaking”. This phenomenon was discovered in 19^th Century to be attributed to a virus which causes many different flamed & feathered varieties which led to the speculative tulip mania in the 1630’s. Clusius laid the foundations of Dutch tulip breeding and the bulb industry today.

3. He has published 2 books, in 1576 about Spanish flora & in 1583 book on Austrian and Hungarian alpine flora.

4. His contributions to the study of plants had led to many plants named in his honour such as Potentilla clusiana, Primula clusiana, Gentiana clusii.

Here are more photos of the tulips. Enjoy the beauty!!