This week, I’d like to tell you something about flower bulbs with special names. There are a lot of those, all for different reasons. It could be a historical event, a love letter, they can be named after someone or something, or it could be a gift… evidently, a flower bulb is appropriate in a lot of different situations, probably because flowers can evoke so many different kinds of emotions when you’re looking at them.
I want to start with the tulip ‘Akebono’. Akebono was a sumo wrestler. He was the first non-Japanese-born sumo wrestler to reach ‘yokozuna,’ the highest rank in sumo. Akebono means ‘new dawn’ in Japanese. This tulip is originally from Japan, where they named her after the legendary wrestler. Just like her namesake, this tulip has something unyielding and grand: she is an absolute eye catcher in any garden.
Secondly I would like to talk about the tulip ‘Cosmopolitan’. A Cosmopolitan is my favourite cocktail: my sisters and I have made them ourselves a bunch of times during quarantine. This tulip has exactly the same pink colour as the cocktail-Cosmopolitan. I love it.
The tulip ‘KNRB (Leo Bataviae)’ was named after the Koninklijke Nederlandse Roei Bond (the Dutch version of the British National Governing Body for Rowing) for its 100-year anniversary. The tulip originally was to be called Leo Bataviae, meaning Lion of Holland, but this was too similar to an already existing name. Therefore she was named KNRB. My father and I went to the National Rowing Congress at the time. We held a short talk and then baptized the tulip with the boards of all the Dutch rowing clubs present. It was a lot of fun for me, as I am a member of a student rowing club. The tulip is beautiful and graceful, with a dazzling orange colour. I’m very happy that it is such a beautiful tulip that carries the name of the KNRB.
The name of the tulip ‘Hugs and Kisses’ has a slightly different origin. Sometimes, my father doesn’t know a good name for a new tulip. He then posts it on Facebook to ask his readers if they have any ideas. The one with the winning name receives some of the tulips as a gift. He posted this particular tulip on Facebook like this. There were a lot of reactions, but as you already know, the name Hugs & Kisses won. We are already familiair with the term ‘comfort food’, but with this tulip I’d like to introduce the comfort flower. She looks lovely and sweet and is truly a tulip to fall in love with. When you look at her you feel better instantly: that’s just the effect Hugs & Kisses have!
When it comes to daffodils I’d like to tell you about ‘Love You More’. Love You More is actually the sequel to ‘I Love You’, but we do not have enough I Love You bulbs yet to be able to sell them on the web site. The name of this flower started as a bit of a prank from my dad: he took this daffodil, which was then still nameless, to an RHS show. It was really well received, the members and attendees loved it. The attendees at those shows are usually elderly, dignified men, so it seemed fun to my dad to name the daffodil I Love You and have these people continuously say I Love You to each other in a very serious manner. I think the people at the RHS show had a good laugh about it, so the name got a sequel: Love You More. I hope that one day we find another one as beautiful as this one, which we can then call ‘Love You Most’.
Finally I want to talk about the daffodil fernandesii. If you happen to find a new species daffodil, you can name it after yourself. So this daffodil was discovered by Mr Fernandes. Discovering a new daffodil is a big dream of people who go on those daffodil-hunting trips like the one I attended with my dad last February. So, if you ever find a new daffodil, you can name it after yourself! Veekii for example.
There are many more flower bulbs with beautiful and meaningful names, but I couldn’t possible name them all here. Then I would have to write an entire book. But these are a few favourites from the Fluwel web site. If you would like them in your garden, you know where to order them!
Kind regards,
Pien van der Veek