Vibrant Variegations
Tulips come in a variety of colors but how about patterns? Why stick to a solid colour – as beautiful as it may be – when you can have stripes or more correctly variegations of different shades adorning your blooms?
There are records of variegated tulips going back to the 17th Century. Traditionally, variegated tulips were the result of a virus infecting the plant. Known as Tulip Breaking Virus this family of viruses causes the colour to be broken into stripes in the leaves of the flower itself. Infecting budding plants with Tulip Breaking Virus used to be the traditional way of creating variegated tulips. Unfortunately, infected plants were also smaller and more sickly looking. These days, modern variegated tulips are the result of deliberate hybridization where genetic manipulation replaced the role of the virus.
This year the FFF+ Group have decided to have a weekly challenge called “Snap Happy”. A different theme chosen by a member of the group each week, and the image is to be posted on the Monday of the week.
This week the theme, “patterns in nature” was chosen by Cheryl, Cheryl - Vickypoint.
The beautiful variegated tulips in this collage, with their striking striped petals, were photographed at the 2019 Tesselaar Tulip Festival. They are:
Left: Flaming Flag.
Middle: Gay Presto.
Right: Flaming Parrot.
The Tesselaar Tulip Festival is held in Silvan every spring since 1954. It has become one of the most iconic tourist attractions in Victoria where more than 120 varieties of tulips are shown on a 55 acre farm. Established by Dutch immigrants Cees and Johanna Tesselaar in 1939 the farm originally grew a selection of tulips, gladioli and daffodils. After initial success, the Tesselaars purchased more land in Silvan. They grew more tulip bulbs and it attracted people to stop by their property and admire their fields. In 1954, Cees and Johanna decided to publicly open the farm with a silver coin donation for the Australian Red Cross. Today around 900,000 tulip bulbs are planted using modern machinery and around another 80,000 bulbs are planted traditionally by hand. The Tesselaar Tulip Festival has been evolved over the years to include music, food and wine festivals to attract more visitors during the spring tulip season of September and October.
Vibrant Variegations
Tulips come in a variety of colors but how about patterns? Why stick to a solid colour – as beautiful as it may be – when you can have stripes or more correctly variegations of different shades adorning your blooms?
There are records of variegated tulips going back to the 17th Century. Traditionally, variegated tulips were the result of a virus infecting the plant. Known as Tulip Breaking Virus this family of viruses causes the colour to be broken into stripes in the leaves of the flower itself. Infecting budding plants with Tulip Breaking Virus used to be the traditional way of creating variegated tulips. Unfortunately, infected plants were also smaller and more sickly looking. These days, modern variegated tulips are the result of deliberate hybridization where genetic manipulation replaced the role of the virus.
This year the FFF+ Group have decided to have a weekly challenge called “Snap Happy”. A different theme chosen by a member of the group each week, and the image is to be posted on the Monday of the week.
This week the theme, “patterns in nature” was chosen by Cheryl, Cheryl - Vickypoint.
The beautiful variegated tulips in this collage, with their striking striped petals, were photographed at the 2019 Tesselaar Tulip Festival. They are:
Left: Flaming Flag.
Middle: Gay Presto.
Right: Flaming Parrot.
The Tesselaar Tulip Festival is held in Silvan every spring since 1954. It has become one of the most iconic tourist attractions in Victoria where more than 120 varieties of tulips are shown on a 55 acre farm. Established by Dutch immigrants Cees and Johanna Tesselaar in 1939 the farm originally grew a selection of tulips, gladioli and daffodils. After initial success, the Tesselaars purchased more land in Silvan. They grew more tulip bulbs and it attracted people to stop by their property and admire their fields. In 1954, Cees and Johanna decided to publicly open the farm with a silver coin donation for the Australian Red Cross. Today around 900,000 tulip bulbs are planted using modern machinery and around another 80,000 bulbs are planted traditionally by hand. The Tesselaar Tulip Festival has been evolved over the years to include music, food and wine festivals to attract more visitors during the spring tulip season of September and October.