Garden of Clusius

The real tulip lovers among us will certainly know which garden this graceful tulip is named after; the Hortus Botanicus in Leiden. This is the garden where botanist Carolus Clusius came to work as director in 1593. Among the plants he brought from his previous workplaces in Vienna and Frankfurt were a number of tulip bulbs. This is how it happened that in the autumn of 1593 tulip bulbs were planted in Dutch soil for the first time, many more would follow.

A nice anecdote to know is that the Belgians could also have had this scoop. The Turkish Sultan, where the Tulip bulbs came from at that time, had already sent Tulip bulbs to friendly trading relations in the city of Antwerp. But as we all know, the Belgians love good food and that was certainly no different at that time. The Tulip bulbs sent by the Sultan, packed in beautifully decorated wooden boxes covered with the most expensive silk, were roasted or boiled mouth-wateringly by his Belgian friends after which they were eaten greedily. Of course I don't know this for sure, perhaps they were cut into salads or they brewed beer from them, but they forgot to try one thing: planting the Tulip bulbs.

Today, the Hortus Botanicus in Leiden still has a beautiful collection of tulips every spring, which makes a visit to this garden in the spring very worthwhile. They are therefore very fortunate that such a cheerful tulip bears the name of this beautiful botanical garden. As beautiful as the Garden of Clusius is in the Hortus Botanicus of Leiden every year, it can also be in your garden, definitely worth a try.