Detail of the inside of the Parrot Tulip cultivar, Estella Rijnveld.
Parrot Tulips, with their flame-like colouration and frilly petals, are very much like the so-called ‘Rembrandt Tulips’ which were so sought after during Tulip Fever in the Netherlands in the early 17th Century, when a single bulb could cost more than ten times an artisan’s annual wage.
However, these early tulips go their colouration from a mosaic virus, which was spread to tulips from peaches and potatoes via a louse.
Nowadays, all ‘flaming’ tulips, including Parrots, are free from the mosaic virus, but have been cross-bred by nurserymen to have same dramatic appearance. The Parrot tulips have been developed from mutations of Triumph or Darwin tulips.
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