Tulip Time Line

1050 - Tulips cultivated in Isfahan and Baghdad.

1453 - Ottomans under Mehmed take Constantinople.

1520 - Suleyman the magnificent, great grandson of Mehmed, becomes Sultan.

1529 - Suleyman lays siege to Vienna.

1554 - Busbecq first encounters tulips in Istanbul.

1559 - Tulips recorded in Bavaria.

1568 - Clusius sees tulips firsthand.

1572 - Dutch revolt against Spain leads to creation of the United Provinces.

1573 - Pope Maximillian II sends Clusius to Vienna to direct hortus. Eventually his tulip bulbs are stolen.

1593 - Clusius moves to Leiden to accept first professorship of botany.

1595 - Duc van Tol Red and Yellow introduced. It is believed to be the oldest existing variety today.

1610 - First of many attempts by United Provinces Parliment to ban futures trading.

1630 - 300 professional florists in Istanbul.

1632 - Rembrandt paints the Anatomy Lesson of Dr.Tulp.

1633 - Semper Augustus priced at 5,500 guilders a bulb.

1633 - 1637 Plague in Holland kills 12% of the population.

1635 - Tulips sold by planting weight (aces) rather than by piece.

1637 - Height of Tulipomania . Semper Augustus priced at 10,000 guilders a bulb.

1637 - Dutch tulip market collapses in February.

1647 - Mehmed IV becomes sultan and establishes registry and classification of tulips.

1661 - Louis XIV fills gardens at Versailles with tulips, narcissus and hyacinths.

1703 - The reign of Ottoman Sultan Ahmed III begins, known as the lale devri or 'tulip era'. All 1300 varieties cultivated during this era are now extinct.

1700 - Tulips widely grown in England.

1845 - Export of tulips to America begins in earnest.

1860 - The double early tulip Murillo introduced.

1877 - Introduction of the first Kaufmanniana hybrids.

1880 - Tulips first cultivated in Australia.

1889 - E.H Krelage introduces Darwin tulips.

1902 - T.Fosteriana from central Asia introduced in Holland.

1910 - Peter Barr collects a wide range of existing and forgotten garden tulips, later known as Cottage tulips.

1917 - first modern classification of tulips groups.

1921 - Krelage introduces Mendel tulips.

1928 - The Tulip breaking virus is isolated, in England, by Dorothy Cayley.

1930 - Appearance of Mrs. John T. Scheepers, a tulip with 48 chromosomes (tetraploid).

1932 - Single Early tulips are crossed with late blooming varieties to create the enormously successful Triumph group.

1940 - DW.Lefeber crosses T.Fosteriana with Darwin tulips to create the vigorous Darwin Hybrids.

1979 - The vigorous Pink Impression, the first pink Darwin Hybrid, is introduced.

1985 - First Colorblends tulips ship to the US.

1996 - Current Tulip Classification revision.

2003 - Investors lose 65 million Euro when SBC, a marketer of new tulip varieties declares bankruptcy.

2005 - Amsterdam Tulip Museum Opens.