Spring brings with it the opportunity to celebrate my heritage; the Irish and Dutch sides of me. Of course everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s day but I’m Irish on all days of the year, but it is March and April when I feel most Dutch. No I don’t wear orange, rather I look for beautiful tulips. When I lived in Indiana I think I planted some 400 tulip bulbs one year along the side of my house. When spring came they looked beautiful. I had multi-colored ones but found the dark purple ones to smell the best.
Now that I live in Florida tulips are harder to come by. I was told I could freeze the bulbs in my freezer and then plant them in a pot and they should take just fine. I don’t know but something just doesn’t seem right with that. Instead I look at fake purple tulips just dreaming that they were in fact real or that someday I would travel to Holland during tulip season just to see the fields of tulips.
While Holland is know for its fast tulip fields, tulips are not native to Holland, rather they are native to the mountains in Asia, the Himalayan mountains! I feel stripped of my identity now. I thought just as Irish can claim the four leaf clover, Germans can claim the brew and Ocktober Fest, and Dutch can certainly claim the tulip, but I’m wrong, just deflated. While Holland is still the major exporter of tulips, they are not the place of origin. I even found proof that the Chinese have developed tulip fields!! See photo below.
I will however continue to wear my tulip and windmill proudly on my Pandora charm bracelet as I’m still Dutch; both right beside my Irish charm. I guess I’ll have to claim the windmill rather than the tulip as truly Dutch. Unless of course I research and find out the windmills aren’t really a Dutch thing either. First the Chinese fortune cookie, now tulips. What’ll be next? Apple pies are in American? I’m thinking I need to stop researching as I may find out I’m not Dutch, Irish, or German….
The purple tulip, one day we will meet again…
