The Tulipomania

We are experiencing a bit of Tulipomania

a flower sometimes abused in municipal massed ranks

needs to be experienced up close as an individual

The same flower changes by the time of day and the type of light

[This tulip has an interesting provenance. When at the re-cycling centre we realised we had inadvertently brought a worm beneath the plastic bags. Asking the attendant for a bit of earth with which to transport the worm safely home we were offered a wooden trough. The worm safely brought back to its own turf the trough was abandoned outside the greenhouse. And then this white tulip emerged…]

The leaves are not as simple as they seem either

It is a name that even other plants like to steal

as in the case of our “Black Tulip” magnolia

So we are valuing our tulip time

in the manner of Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder

(who we keep in the kitchen)

and not in the manner of those mocked by his contemporary Jan Brueghel the Younger