Wild colored tulips like these are called "broken." They were once infected by a virus that caused the cultivar to "break" its lock on a single color. The bug caused the bars, stripes and streaks of color on the petals of these fancy tulips.
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| Rem's Sensaton |
No, our garden is not infected with tulip virus. Today, tulips displaying a broken effect are the result of breeding, not disease. But back in the 1600's, tulips from broken bulbs were highly prized, although the virus so weakened the bulb that only a few varieties of old broken tulips are still in existence. An example is the rare
Absalon, which dates from 1780-- it has gold flames against a dark chocolate brown background.
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| Absalon |
Other tulips like the magnificent
Semper Augustus are now extinct. During the tulip-mania period they were considered to be the Holy Grail of all flowers. The pinnacle of perfection. The price for a single Semper Augustus bulb would have been approximately 10,000 guilders. That exhoribent amount would have purchased a big house on the most
fashionable canal in Amsterdam.
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| Semper Augustus |
The virus made it difficult to propagate and the poor bulb eventually withered to nothing - ending the
genetic line. The famous, broken-colored Semper August bulb no longer exists. Except for thousands of
botanical drawings on the Internet.
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