Everyone knows the tulip as the symbol of the Netherlands, but the story of this flower began high in the mountains of Asia. So, the tulip doesn't originate in the Netherlands, as many people think.
In this article, Sylvia Pennings, director of Tulip Experience Amsterdam, shares the discoveries from her research into the fascinating history of the tulip. In the Tulip Experience’s Tulip Museum, this extraordinary story comes to life. Here you'll discover how a simple mountain flower grew into a global icon.
The flower was already mentioned in ancient poems and stories from Central Asia. The tulip is originally a mountain flower from Kazakhstan, from the Tien Shan and Pamir regions, on the border between China and Russia.
Around 1200, we find the tulip in Persian poetry, where poets praised it and described it as the ideal of feminine beauty and the symbol of perfection. By 1500, the tulip was an inseparable part of Ottoman culture. For two centuries, Turkey managed to keep the tulip exclusively for itself.
"The history of the tulip begins around the year 1000"
From the mountains of Kazakhstan, the tulip traveled via Turkey with traders to Europe and finally to the Netherlands. The famous Flemish botanist Carolus Clusius (1526-1609) was responsible for introducing the tulip to the Netherlands.
Clusius accidentally came into contact with a tulip bulb through a shipment of cloth from Constantinople around 1565. Being completely fascinated with the flower, he began cultivating and studying the tulip, sharing his fascination with others. This was the start of the tulip cultivations in the Low Countries.
"It remains fascinating how one small flower has such a rich history," says Sylvia. "It began as a mountain flower in Asia and ended up as the icon of the Netherlands." Even today, the tulip is still seen as a symbol of beauty.
From 1600 onward, tulip bulbs were considered a luxury item. They were especially popular with wealthy merchants and regents from Haarlem and Amsterdam, who spent a great deal of money on decorating their ornamental gardens.
“The flower was so popular that rich people even put mirrors behind their tulips in the garden so it looked like they had more,” laughs Sylvia. “You just had to have one, otherwise you didn't matter. That's something you can no longer imagine now.”
The most famous tulip bulb from that time is the Semper Augustus (translated: Always August), recognizable by its flame-colored stripes. In 1623, Nicolaes van Wassenaer, an Amsterdam physician and scholar, declared the Semper Augustus the ‘tulip of the year’. Centuries later, in 1930, it was discovered that the flame-colored stripes on the flower were caused by a virus: the tulip refraction virus.
In 1634, the true tulip mania began. Speculators (today's stockbrokers) poured into the tulip trade, hoping to get rich quickly. For the Semper Augustus, a single bulb fetched 10,000 guilders. The same price as a canal house... with a garden!
This so-called wind trading (making a profit on speculative grounds) was aimed at selling hot air with contracts that could never be fulfilled.
In 1637, speculation in tulips even grew into a craze and caused the world's first stock market crash. This period is called the tulip mania.
In 1636-1637, public opinion began to turn against tulip speculators. Gambling was considered a sin, and speculation began to resemble it.
On Tuesday evening, February 3, 1637, the speculative tulip trade in Haarlem collapsed, and prices plummeted. The tulip trade gained a bad reputation, leaving many speculators empty-handed. It was the first-ever stock market crash. From then on, the tulip remained popular, only now at more reasonable prices.
"It was truly the Bitcoin of the time. People paid millions just to show off a single, special tulip. And just as quickly as it started, the bubble burst."
At the Tulip Experience Amsterdam museum, you can see what this short but intense period was like. Graphs show how prices skyrocketed, and remarkable stories reveal the lengths people went to for their beloved flower.
The Tulip Experience Amsterdam exhibition is structured like a timeline, taking you step by step through history, from early Asian poetry to modern tulip cultivation in the Bollenstreek (Boll Region).
What makes that period so special is that it still feels relatable. The urge to own something special, to belong, is timeless. Sylvia says: "It shows how quickly an entire society can be captivated by something beautiful. Whether it's tulips, houses, or digital art."
Sylvia: "We didn't just want to show the grower, we wanted to tell the whole story. That's why we read over sixty books and interviewed historians to capture the most important moments. You start in the year 1000 and end in the present day, in the middle of the tulip fields."
"What makes our Tulip Museum special is that we combine it with the show garden," says Sylvia. The Tulip Museum is just one part of the complete Tulip Experience. After the museum, visitors can walk straight to the Tulip Garden with 4 million tulips, where the flowers they've just read about can be seen in real life.
"That's what makes it so much fun," says Sylvia. "You hear the story first, and then you see the tulip in all its glory. The museum is bilingual, in Dutch and English, and can be explored with an audio tour in eleven different languages. Guided tours are also available for groups, bringing the stories even more to life."
Tulip Experience Amsterdam is open from March 19 to May 10, 2026. Book your tickets here.
This article was written in collaboration with Sylvia Pennings, director of Tulip Experience Amsterdam. Since she was nine, she has helped out at her father's tulip nursery, and in 2019, they founded Tulip Experience Amsterdam. Together with her family, she lets visitors experience the magic of the tulip and shares the story of the bulb grower.
