Stop and Smell Tulips

Tulips are spring-blooming perennials that grow from bulbs. Depending on the species, tulip plants can be between 4 inches (10 cm) and 28 inches (71 cm) high.

The tulip's large flowers usually bloom on scapes with leaves in a rosette at ground level and a single flowering stalk arising from amongst the leaves.

Tulip stems have few leaves. Larger species tend to have multiple leaves. Plants typically have two to six leaves, some species up to 12.

Tulip flowers come in a wide variety of colors, except pure blue. Most tulips produce only one flower per stem, but a few species bear multiple flowers on their scapes.

In Changchun Park, Jilin

Tulips are in full bloom at the Changchun Park in Changchun, capital of northeast China's Jilin Province, 13 May 2015.

In Yinggeshi Botanical Park, Dalian

Tulip flowers are in full bloom at the Yinggeshi Botanical Park in Dalian, a port city of Northeastern China’s Liaoning Province, April 22, 2015.

More than three million tulip flowers in over 100 varieties brought in from the Netherlands bloom in this park as the temperature rises in recent days.

Tulips were imported to Holland from the Ottoman Empire sometime in the late sixteenth century and soon adopted by the Dutch as their national flower.