Mayesh Wholesale Flowers

Tulips have been around for centuries and today, a surfeit of specialty varieties are available from Mayesh Wholesale Florist. The following offers floral designers a peek into the history of tulips along with valuable tips on care & handling.

In years past, wealthy people began to purchase tulip bulbs that were brought back from Turkey by Venetian merchants. In the beginning of the seventeenth century, France began to become interested in tulips. In 1610, fashionable French ladies wore corsages of tulips.

The botanist Carolus Clusius of Leyden was one of the earliest growers. He developed a large collection which, around 1591, he proudly displayed to his fellow townsmen. He also offered bulbs for sale at very high prices. On a crisp August day in 1594, an elderly Carolus Clusius planted a handful of tulip bulbs — a flower native to asia — in a small garden at the university of Leiden in the Netherlands, and in the spring of 1594, the first tulips bloomed in Holland. Clusius' planting is considered by the Dutch to be the birth of their famous flower bulb business which celebrates its 411rd birthday in 2005. The lust for tulips was not so much an enthusiasm for the flower, the bulbs became an actual type of currency. Their value changed from day to day and was quoted like stocks and shares.

See Tulip Care & Handling below.....

Clusius' tulips caused a sensation in 17th century Holland. They became the rage as aristocrats flaunted the exotic flowers as symbols of power and prestige. Soon, Dutch society was swept up in a tulip-trading craze, and hard nosed traders offered sky-high bids for the bulbs.

The tulip frenzy influenced fashion and many fabrics were decorated with tulip designs. Everyone frequented the market and speculated in tulip shares. During the period 1634-1637, people abandoned jobs, businesses, wives, homes and lovers to become tulip growers.It is believed the word bourse [stock exchange] derives from that period, because those who speculated in the tulip market held their meetings at the house of the noble family Van Bourse.

Ladies of the French court created a fashion of wearing tulips on their dresses, valuing apparently the unusual kinds, so that there was competition among their suitors to buy flowers of the rarest and newest varieties. All this laid the foundation for the famous Tulipomania of Holland between, one of the most extraordinary speculative manias in history and to be compared only with the South Sea Bubble of 1717, the Florida Land Boom, and the Stock Market speculations in the late 1920s.

Today tulips remain one of the most popular cut flowers today and Mayesh Wholesale Florists has availability on novety varieties as well.

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Tulip care tips for florists

Preservatives/Flower Foods . Although preservatives are not as beneficial to tulips as they are to most other flowers (benefits vary from none to a 150 percent increase in vase life), their use is still recommended, if for no other reason than to reduce the amount of bacteria in the water. The benefits vary greatly depending on cultivars, grower, and water quality.

Hydration/Conditioning Recut the stems with a sharp knife on an angle, and place the tulips in room temperature to lukewarm water (no warmer than 100 F). Although tulips are thirsty flowers, the water should be only four to six inches deep. Be sure to remove the white portion of the stems. Leave the tulips wrapped in their sleeves as they are hydrating to encourage straighter stems. Allow them to hydrate for two or three hours at room temperature, then place them in the refrigerator away from the light source.

Storage tips Refrigerate in a dark part of a cooler at 36-38 F for three days or fewer. The humidity level should be 90 percent to 95 percent. Leave tulips wrapped or in their sleeves. For maximum vase life at the consumer level, tulips should hydrated immediately and sold within a couple of days. However, if absolutely necessary, tulips can be stored dry and in a horizontal position for two or three days. Ethylene sensitivity varies by cultivars.

Purchasing tips In general, purchase tulips with tightly closed blooms that are showing partial color, although the proper maturity stage is very species and cultivar dependent. Look for firm, straight stems and firm, green foliage with no discolorations. Become familiar with some of the various cultivars since postharvest characteristics vary greatly.

Vase life for consumers The vase life of tulips is also very species and cultivar dependent, but, in general, consumers should be able to expect tulips to last from three to seven days.

Tulip idiosyncrasies Do not place tulips in a container with Narcissi (paperwhites, daffodils, jonquils, etc.) that have just been cut, as the mucilage exuded by the narcissi can adversely affect the tulips' vase life. Narcissi and tulips can be mixed in arrangements only after both have been conditioned separately, and then, narcissi stems must not be recut when placing in arrangements with tulips.

Tulip stems (scapes) often continue to elongate an inch or more after harvest; wiring the stems will not help.

Fresh cut tulips are geotropic and phototropic, meaning that their growth is affected by gravity and light, respectively. Blooms will always curve upwards and bend towards sources of light.