Capital Frills. Parrot Tulip, Oosterdokdamtuin, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
In 1832 a dam was built across a branch of the IJ, the Amsterdam river, to create a safer haven for ships out of 'the swing of the sea', not subject to the tides of the Zuyderzee - today the IJsselmeer - with which the river was then still directly connected. Recent development cut that dam - the connection to the IJsselmeer is no longer dangerous because of the so-called Afsluitdijk. City planners have theorised about uses of the vestige, an appendix to the Prins Hendrikkade, but nothing much has yet come of that. For the time being local people have made it into a kind of city garden with plants in wooden boxes since 2015. This year though things look rather derelict and unkempt.
But! there are still some garden plants among the weeds. One of them is this wonderful Parrot Tulip. Tulips have been hybridised ever since their introduction to Europe in the late sixteenth century, and this is one of the more spectacular forms.
Capital Frills. Parrot Tulip, Oosterdokdamtuin, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
In 1832 a dam was built across a branch of the IJ, the Amsterdam river, to create a safer haven for ships out of 'the swing of the sea', not subject to the tides of the Zuyderzee - today the IJsselmeer - with which the river was then still directly connected. Recent development cut that dam - the connection to the IJsselmeer is no longer dangerous because of the so-called Afsluitdijk. City planners have theorised about uses of the vestige, an appendix to the Prins Hendrikkade, but nothing much has yet come of that. For the time being local people have made it into a kind of city garden with plants in wooden boxes since 2015. This year though things look rather derelict and unkempt.
But! there are still some garden plants among the weeds. One of them is this wonderful Parrot Tulip. Tulips have been hybridised ever since their introduction to Europe in the late sixteenth century, and this is one of the more spectacular forms.