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Of the 420,000 flowering plants on our planets, | 0:00:03 | 0:00:08 | |
only a fraction of them have entranced us enough | 0:00:08 | 0:00:12 | |
for us to bring them in from the wild and grow them in our gardens. | 0:00:12 | 0:00:16 | |
But many of the plants we know and love today | 0:00:20 | 0:00:23 | |
look totally different from their ancestors. | 0:00:23 | 0:00:26 | |
Evolution and mankind have conspired | 0:00:27 | 0:00:30 | |
to shape a multitude of diverse forms. | 0:00:30 | 0:00:34 | |
How spectacular! | 0:00:35 | 0:00:37 | |
This is my plant odyssey. | 0:00:40 | 0:00:41 | |
I love that one. | 0:00:43 | 0:00:44 | |
This is one of a kind. This is the only one in the world. | 0:00:44 | 0:00:48 | |
I'm going to trace some of our favourite plants... | 0:00:48 | 0:00:51 | |
..from their earliest origins | 0:00:52 | 0:00:55 | |
and, through their captivating stories, | 0:00:55 | 0:00:57 | |
reveal why they have such significance in our culture... | 0:00:57 | 0:01:03 | |
Oh, it's glorious! | 0:01:03 | 0:01:04 | |
..and such a special place in our hearts. | 0:01:04 | 0:01:07 | |
I'm looking at one of the world's best-loved flowers, | 0:01:12 | 0:01:17 | |
with its kaleidoscopic range of colours | 0:01:17 | 0:01:21 | |
and its distinctive goblet-shaped blooms. | 0:01:21 | 0:01:24 | |
It's a familiar sight, | 0:01:25 | 0:01:28 | |
and yet its subtle sheen | 0:01:28 | 0:01:32 | |
and its mysterious interior | 0:01:32 | 0:01:35 | |
give it an intriguing, almost mystical persona. | 0:01:35 | 0:01:40 | |
The tulip! | 0:01:40 | 0:01:41 | |
With its seemingly infinite variety of shapes, colours and forms, | 0:01:46 | 0:01:51 | |
it's little wonder that the tulip has catapulted itself | 0:01:51 | 0:01:57 | |
into the centre of the gardening stage and into our hearts. | 0:01:57 | 0:02:02 | |
But where did the first tulips come from? | 0:02:07 | 0:02:10 | |
How did they change so dramatically in less than 600 years? | 0:02:10 | 0:02:15 | |
And why did a handful of flowers almost bankrupt a country? | 0:02:15 | 0:02:20 | |
My tulip odyssey takes me to Turkey. | 0:02:22 | 0:02:24 | |
I'll travel from the snow-capped mountains in the east | 0:02:25 | 0:02:28 | |
to the exotic palaces of the sultans in the west. | 0:02:28 | 0:02:32 | |
Even the whole dome is like an enormous tulip. | 0:02:32 | 0:02:36 | |
I'll retrace the tulip's voyage from Constantinople to Holland. | 0:02:37 | 0:02:42 | |
This is so exciting. | 0:02:42 | 0:02:45 | |
On a journey that explores the bizarre and exotic history | 0:02:45 | 0:02:49 | |
of this enigmatic flower. | 0:02:49 | 0:02:52 | |
My odyssey begins in the remote mountains of eastern Turkey. | 0:02:55 | 0:02:59 | |
I'm on the hunt for a species tulip, | 0:03:01 | 0:03:04 | |
one of the early ancestors of the tulips we know and love. | 0:03:04 | 0:03:08 | |
They evolved in landscapes like these | 0:03:13 | 0:03:15 | |
across Central Asia around 30 million years ago. | 0:03:15 | 0:03:20 | |
I've come a long way, but I would have come from the ends of the Earth | 0:03:24 | 0:03:28 | |
just to see this beautiful tulip. | 0:03:28 | 0:03:31 | |
This is the very first species tulip I have ever seen. | 0:03:32 | 0:03:36 | |
It's Tulipa armena. | 0:03:38 | 0:03:41 | |
It grows all through this rough old ground, | 0:03:41 | 0:03:45 | |
and so perfect, so beautiful. | 0:03:45 | 0:03:48 | |
You look at the soil and you think, "How could anything live like that?" | 0:03:48 | 0:03:51 | |
but, of course, this is a tulip that's perfectly adapted | 0:03:51 | 0:03:55 | |
and evolved with its situation and its setting. | 0:03:55 | 0:03:59 | |
Its short, thick stem and tightly wrapped petals | 0:03:59 | 0:04:03 | |
allow this tulip to cope with the constant buffeting | 0:04:03 | 0:04:07 | |
of the mountain winds. | 0:04:07 | 0:04:09 | |
If modern tulips with their more slender stems | 0:04:10 | 0:04:13 | |
and their folds of delicate petals were planted here | 0:04:13 | 0:04:17 | |
they'd never survive the battering. | 0:04:17 | 0:04:20 | |
But Tulipa armena is made of sterner stuff. | 0:04:22 | 0:04:26 | |
It's a bulb. | 0:04:28 | 0:04:29 | |
It lives under the ground all through those cold, cold winters. | 0:04:29 | 0:04:33 | |
They are cold, we're high up here. | 0:04:33 | 0:04:35 | |
I've always taken bulbs for granted, but inside they're a marvel. | 0:04:37 | 0:04:42 | |
The layers are embryonic leaves, each packed with energy. | 0:04:45 | 0:04:49 | |
Over winter, the bulb lies dormant, saving this reserve | 0:04:52 | 0:04:58 | |
for a single glorious moment - the first snow melt. | 0:04:58 | 0:05:02 | |
As the water seeps into the ground, something stirs. | 0:05:05 | 0:05:09 | |
Safe at the heart of the bulb is the secret behind the tulip's success - | 0:05:12 | 0:05:18 | |
a miniature clone of a parent. | 0:05:18 | 0:05:21 | |
The energy in these layers is rapidly broken down | 0:05:23 | 0:05:26 | |
to provide the surge needed for this tiny clone | 0:05:26 | 0:05:31 | |
to burst up through the soil and bloom. | 0:05:31 | 0:05:34 | |
Up it comes, these beautiful crinkled leaves. | 0:05:42 | 0:05:47 | |
They're completely unlike most of the tulips we grow in our garden. | 0:05:47 | 0:05:51 | |
They're not crinkled just because it looks nice, | 0:05:51 | 0:05:53 | |
they're crinkled for a purpose. | 0:05:53 | 0:05:56 | |
It's partly to retain moisture and, also, if the leaf was flattened out, | 0:05:56 | 0:06:01 | |
then the sun would beat down on it, so it protects the leaves. | 0:06:01 | 0:06:04 | |
It needs all the nutrition it can get from those leaves | 0:06:04 | 0:06:08 | |
until this flower has been pollinated. | 0:06:08 | 0:06:11 | |
This is the tulips' ultimate goal. | 0:06:12 | 0:06:17 | |
But attracting a pollinator isn't always easy in mountains like these. | 0:06:17 | 0:06:22 | |
Their bright red, bulbous flowers have evolved | 0:06:23 | 0:06:27 | |
to act as beacons to passing insects. | 0:06:27 | 0:06:30 | |
But these flowers offer the bees more than just a meal. | 0:06:33 | 0:06:37 | |
Our thermal cameras reveal something remarkable - | 0:06:37 | 0:06:41 | |
a hidden microclimate inside the bloom, | 0:06:41 | 0:06:45 | |
around five degrees warmer than the temperature outside. | 0:06:45 | 0:06:49 | |
In this pocket of warm air, | 0:06:50 | 0:06:52 | |
the insects are protected from the harsh mountain elements. | 0:06:52 | 0:06:56 | |
They can safely and comfortably relax and gorge themselves | 0:06:57 | 0:07:02 | |
without their flight muscles getting too cold. | 0:07:02 | 0:07:05 | |
The bees will often spend the whole night | 0:07:07 | 0:07:09 | |
cosily ensconced inside the flower | 0:07:09 | 0:07:12 | |
before leaving the next morning covered in the plant's pollen. | 0:07:12 | 0:07:16 | |
I just think it's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. | 0:07:18 | 0:07:22 | |
Compare this to the tulips we grow in our garden. | 0:07:22 | 0:07:26 | |
You can see the similarities, and at the same time you can tell | 0:07:26 | 0:07:30 | |
that this is a species plant, this is how nature intended it to be. | 0:07:30 | 0:07:35 | |
Seeing these tulips in the wild is exciting, | 0:07:37 | 0:07:40 | |
but it leaves me with more questions - | 0:07:40 | 0:07:43 | |
how did the tulip escape the isolation of these mountains | 0:07:43 | 0:07:48 | |
and become one of the world's most celebrated flowers? | 0:07:48 | 0:07:53 | |
I need to head west to find the answer. | 0:07:53 | 0:07:56 | |
Across the centuries, many famous names | 0:07:59 | 0:08:03 | |
have travelled the silk routes from Central Asia to the West. | 0:08:03 | 0:08:08 | |
Marco Polo, Genghis Kahn, Alexander the Great, | 0:08:08 | 0:08:13 | |
they all passed through the city destined to become the epicentre | 0:08:13 | 0:08:18 | |
of the tulip world - | 0:08:18 | 0:08:20 | |
Istanbul. | 0:08:20 | 0:08:22 | |
Look how colourful these spices are. | 0:08:24 | 0:08:28 | |
-How are you? -I'm very well. All the better for seeing all this. | 0:08:28 | 0:08:32 | |
Manchester, yes. I'm from Manchester. | 0:08:32 | 0:08:34 | |
It's just... I can't describe it. It's so atmospheric. | 0:08:36 | 0:08:39 | |
You just feel that you're at the confluence of all these | 0:08:39 | 0:08:43 | |
different cultures, you can feel the history. | 0:08:43 | 0:08:46 | |
You can imagine the sorts of adventures that took place. | 0:08:46 | 0:08:50 | |
It looks delightful. | 0:08:50 | 0:08:51 | |
Very, very nice. | 0:08:51 | 0:08:52 | |
No calories. | 0:08:54 | 0:08:56 | |
No calories. | 0:08:56 | 0:08:57 | |
You can just feel that whole sort of sensation | 0:08:57 | 0:09:02 | |
that this has been such an important place for so many different people. | 0:09:02 | 0:09:06 | |
It's believed to be the Seljuk tribe who, in the 11th century, | 0:09:08 | 0:09:12 | |
stuffed tulips into their saddlebags alongside their spices and silks, | 0:09:12 | 0:09:17 | |
and brought them to Istanbul. | 0:09:17 | 0:09:20 | |
Look, look, look. Look at the tulips. Come on. | 0:09:23 | 0:09:27 | |
Isn't that beautiful? | 0:09:28 | 0:09:30 | |
Look, look at this. | 0:09:30 | 0:09:32 | |
They're tulips, yes? Lovely. | 0:09:33 | 0:09:35 | |
For centuries, the tulip has been a Turkish icon. | 0:09:39 | 0:09:43 | |
It's still regarded here as the embodiment of beauty and perfection. | 0:09:43 | 0:09:48 | |
This is the Rustem Pasha Mosque, and within these walls | 0:09:52 | 0:09:57 | |
is convincing evidence of the importance of a certain plant | 0:09:57 | 0:10:00 | |
to the Ottoman Empire. | 0:10:00 | 0:10:03 | |
I'm about to enter what can only be described as tulip mecca. | 0:10:06 | 0:10:11 | |
It's so silent. | 0:10:25 | 0:10:28 | |
It's so holy. | 0:10:30 | 0:10:31 | |
Every inch of these walls is just covered in these beautiful tiles | 0:10:37 | 0:10:42 | |
and such glowing colours. | 0:10:42 | 0:10:44 | |
The more you look at them, | 0:10:44 | 0:10:46 | |
the more tulips you see...everywhere. | 0:10:46 | 0:10:48 | |
Even the whole dome is like an enormous tulip. | 0:10:56 | 0:11:01 | |
Look here. | 0:11:10 | 0:11:13 | |
The same elongated, etiolated shape. | 0:11:13 | 0:11:17 | |
Tiny little ones here. | 0:11:19 | 0:11:21 | |
It's a motif in absolutely every tile. | 0:11:21 | 0:11:26 | |
And how...how vital it is. | 0:11:26 | 0:11:29 | |
You know, this is flat clay with colour that's been baked in a kiln, | 0:11:29 | 0:11:34 | |
and yet the whole thing is alive. | 0:11:34 | 0:11:38 | |
It just shows such a sense of reverence for that flower. | 0:11:38 | 0:11:42 | |
Tulips assumed profound religious significance in Ottoman culture. | 0:11:48 | 0:11:53 | |
They represented the oneness of God, | 0:11:53 | 0:11:56 | |
a single flower rising on a stem from a bulb. | 0:11:56 | 0:12:01 | |
There was even a period in Turkish history known as the Tulip Era. | 0:12:01 | 0:12:05 | |
The sultan of the time, Ahmed III, hosted tulip competitions | 0:12:07 | 0:12:12 | |
and lavish full-moon parties, | 0:12:12 | 0:12:14 | |
where the nobles enjoyed the spectacle of their favourite blooms. | 0:12:14 | 0:12:20 | |
I feel the same - flowers are perfectly choreographed, | 0:12:24 | 0:12:28 | |
each one an exquisite performance. | 0:12:28 | 0:12:32 | |
They're magnificently ostentatious. | 0:12:33 | 0:12:37 | |
Yet, at the same time, rigorously functional. | 0:12:37 | 0:12:40 | |
Each day starts as the flowers unfurl, | 0:12:42 | 0:12:45 | |
a process regulated by temperature. | 0:12:45 | 0:12:48 | |
In the morning, as the temperature rises, | 0:12:50 | 0:12:53 | |
the surface on the inside of the petal grows faster than the outside. | 0:12:53 | 0:12:58 | |
The tension this creates causes the flower to open. | 0:12:58 | 0:13:02 | |
In the evening, as the air cools, | 0:13:04 | 0:13:06 | |
the outside of the petals grows faster than the inside, | 0:13:06 | 0:13:11 | |
and the flower closes. | 0:13:11 | 0:13:12 | |
I can just imagine the sultan and his guests out in the moonlight | 0:13:13 | 0:13:18 | |
revelling in the ballet that would unfold before them. | 0:13:18 | 0:13:21 | |
Although the Ottomans were undoubtedly excellent botanists, | 0:13:26 | 0:13:30 | |
there were greater forces at work. | 0:13:30 | 0:13:32 | |
I like the idea that the sultan's gardeners needed some | 0:13:33 | 0:13:37 | |
botanical serendipity to get them started. | 0:13:37 | 0:13:40 | |
They were constantly on the lookout for new flowers, | 0:13:41 | 0:13:45 | |
and tulips started to pour into the centre | 0:13:45 | 0:13:48 | |
to satisfy the sultan's needs. | 0:13:48 | 0:13:50 | |
When they reached their destination, they were planted side by side, | 0:13:50 | 0:13:55 | |
so tulips met each other | 0:13:55 | 0:13:56 | |
who would never have been introduced in the wild. | 0:13:56 | 0:13:59 | |
Of course, most flowers are promiscuous, | 0:14:01 | 0:14:04 | |
and when a bee came along, | 0:14:04 | 0:14:06 | |
bees being what they are and not particular about where | 0:14:06 | 0:14:09 | |
they get their pollen, they collected the pollen from one | 0:14:09 | 0:14:12 | |
of these flowers and deposited it | 0:14:12 | 0:14:16 | |
on the female part of another flower. | 0:14:16 | 0:14:20 | |
To us, it looks like an alien world. | 0:14:23 | 0:14:26 | |
But flowers are complex and precise organs of reproduction. | 0:14:28 | 0:14:32 | |
Insects arrive for one reason - to eat. | 0:14:35 | 0:14:40 | |
And the tulip must be ready to take advantage of this visit. | 0:14:40 | 0:14:43 | |
At the top of each stamen sits an anther, a tiny pollen factory. | 0:14:44 | 0:14:50 | |
The plant pumps water into the anthers for the pollen to absorb. | 0:14:51 | 0:14:57 | |
As the pollen grows, the anthers shrivel. | 0:14:57 | 0:15:01 | |
Finally, they split and the pollen bursts forth. | 0:15:01 | 0:15:05 | |
The anthers seem to almost turn inside out. | 0:15:11 | 0:15:14 | |
Exposed to the air, the pollen dries. | 0:15:16 | 0:15:20 | |
It becomes detachable and dormant, fluffy and light. | 0:15:20 | 0:15:25 | |
The insects are covered in excess pollen | 0:15:25 | 0:15:29 | |
as they feast at different flowers, | 0:15:29 | 0:15:31 | |
and eventually these grains of pollen | 0:15:31 | 0:15:34 | |
find their way on to the stigma of a compatible flower. | 0:15:34 | 0:15:38 | |
This female part is covered in jelly-producing filaments. | 0:15:40 | 0:15:45 | |
On contact, the pollen grains rehydrate, | 0:15:45 | 0:15:49 | |
awaken from their dormant state and fertilise the flower. | 0:15:49 | 0:15:53 | |
In the sultan's garden, | 0:15:58 | 0:15:59 | |
these different tulips would have cross-pollinated randomly. | 0:15:59 | 0:16:03 | |
Amongst them, there must have been true gems. | 0:16:04 | 0:16:08 | |
When at last they bloomed, the sultan would have been overjoyed. | 0:16:08 | 0:16:12 | |
Finally it would have dawned on people that it was possible | 0:16:14 | 0:16:19 | |
to play the part of those insects, | 0:16:19 | 0:16:21 | |
to choose the parents and to move the pollen very deliberately | 0:16:21 | 0:16:25 | |
from one plant to another. | 0:16:25 | 0:16:27 | |
This was the breakthrough - | 0:16:29 | 0:16:32 | |
it was the Ottomans ability to manipulate nature, | 0:16:32 | 0:16:35 | |
coupled with the promiscuous qualities of the tulip, | 0:16:35 | 0:16:39 | |
that would change this flower forever. | 0:16:39 | 0:16:42 | |
Millions of years of evolution fastforwarded in only a few decades, | 0:16:42 | 0:16:47 | |
and these astonishing hybrids soon spread across the planet. | 0:16:47 | 0:16:52 | |
The Ottoman's story is one of sultans possessed | 0:16:55 | 0:16:59 | |
by a kind of tulip madness, | 0:16:59 | 0:17:01 | |
but their stories pale in comparison to the tulip obsession | 0:17:01 | 0:17:05 | |
that gripped an entire nation on the other side of the known world. | 0:17:05 | 0:17:10 | |
The next leg of my odyssey follows the footsteps | 0:17:12 | 0:17:15 | |
of the globetrotting ambassadors who triumphantly sailed back to Europe | 0:17:15 | 0:17:20 | |
bearing tulips among their treasures. | 0:17:20 | 0:17:23 | |
They ended up here - | 0:17:26 | 0:17:27 | |
the first place you think of when you think of tulips. | 0:17:27 | 0:17:31 | |
Holland is the hub of our global tulip industry. | 0:17:34 | 0:17:39 | |
The Aalsmeer Warehouse, the largest building on Earth, | 0:17:39 | 0:17:42 | |
trades 19 million flowers every day. | 0:17:42 | 0:17:46 | |
But the tulip industry hasn't always been so prosperous. | 0:17:49 | 0:17:53 | |
By a pure quirk of nature, | 0:17:54 | 0:17:56 | |
this flower brought the Dutch economy to its knees. | 0:17:56 | 0:18:00 | |
It's a story that almost ended before it began. | 0:18:03 | 0:18:07 | |
The relationship between the Dutch and their beloved tulips | 0:18:07 | 0:18:11 | |
got off to the worst of starts. | 0:18:11 | 0:18:13 | |
When tulips first arrived in northern Europe, | 0:18:15 | 0:18:19 | |
nobody had a clue what to do with them. | 0:18:19 | 0:18:23 | |
In one well-documented case, | 0:18:23 | 0:18:25 | |
a merchant who had been sent some as a present ordered his servants | 0:18:25 | 0:18:29 | |
to stick them on the fire and roast them. | 0:18:29 | 0:18:31 | |
He thought they were some kind of onions. | 0:18:31 | 0:18:34 | |
They were disgusting! | 0:18:34 | 0:18:35 | |
But within 40 years of arriving in Holland, | 0:18:38 | 0:18:42 | |
the tulip had become a national obsession. | 0:18:42 | 0:18:46 | |
Can you imagine the excitement when in 1637 a single tulip bulb sold | 0:18:46 | 0:18:53 | |
for the same price as one of these fine town houses would have cost? | 0:18:53 | 0:18:58 | |
This was tulip mania. | 0:18:58 | 0:19:01 | |
And, like the Tulip Era of the Ottoman Empire, | 0:19:01 | 0:19:05 | |
it started with the obsessions of a wealthy elite | 0:19:05 | 0:19:08 | |
and a very special type of tulip. | 0:19:08 | 0:19:10 | |
This is one of the big treats on my odyssey. | 0:19:13 | 0:19:17 | |
Henk Looijesteijn, a historian of the Dutch Golden Age, | 0:19:17 | 0:19:21 | |
is about to show me one of the great treasures of the Frans Hals Museum - | 0:19:21 | 0:19:26 | |
a unique 400-year-old hand-painted tulip catalogue. | 0:19:26 | 0:19:31 | |
This is so exciting. How beautiful. | 0:19:33 | 0:19:36 | |
Yes, this is an example of what Dutchmen | 0:19:36 | 0:19:39 | |
in the early 17th century prized most. | 0:19:39 | 0:19:43 | |
An exquisite pattern on every flower, petal, | 0:19:43 | 0:19:46 | |
colour splashed over the petals, that was new, that was rare. | 0:19:46 | 0:19:50 | |
It was never seen before in a flower, | 0:19:50 | 0:19:52 | |
which is why people were really excited. | 0:19:52 | 0:19:54 | |
So tulips like this were uncommon, they were very rare. Who owned them? | 0:19:54 | 0:20:00 | |
Mostly the elite owned them - rich merchants, wealthy politicians. | 0:20:00 | 0:20:06 | |
Often they were the same in the Dutch Republic. | 0:20:06 | 0:20:09 | |
They were the only ones who could afford these rare, exotic flowers. | 0:20:09 | 0:20:15 | |
They were collecting tulips, so to say, | 0:20:15 | 0:20:16 | |
just as they were collecting paintings. | 0:20:16 | 0:20:18 | |
So they appreciated their beauty, | 0:20:18 | 0:20:20 | |
it wasn't just a question of their value. | 0:20:20 | 0:20:22 | |
It was first and foremost their beauty. | 0:20:22 | 0:20:25 | |
It was this beauty that inspired some similarly seductive names. | 0:20:27 | 0:20:31 | |
There was the delicate Coquette, the instiller of passion, | 0:20:33 | 0:20:37 | |
the increaser of pleasure, and the matchless Pearl. | 0:20:37 | 0:20:41 | |
-I know there's one very famous one. -Yeah. -It's in this book, isn't it? | 0:20:43 | 0:20:46 | |
-Exactly. -Can we have a look at that? -We should turn to that one. | 0:20:46 | 0:20:50 | |
Now, even I know what this is. This is the tulip of tulips, isn't it? | 0:20:50 | 0:20:54 | |
Semper Augustus. | 0:20:54 | 0:20:55 | |
Always the emperor, the Semper Augustus. | 0:20:55 | 0:21:00 | |
That was how it was called when it was first grown in the 1620s. | 0:21:00 | 0:21:03 | |
It's the most prized tulip, | 0:21:05 | 0:21:07 | |
the prima donna amongst all the tulips of the Dutch Golden Age. | 0:21:07 | 0:21:12 | |
Soon everyone wanted a piece of the action. | 0:21:16 | 0:21:20 | |
Tulips were no longer regarded as natural works of art | 0:21:20 | 0:21:24 | |
but as a commodity. | 0:21:24 | 0:21:25 | |
They were traded furiously, changing hands up to ten times a day. | 0:21:27 | 0:21:31 | |
People even started trading bulbs planted in the ground | 0:21:33 | 0:21:36 | |
with no idea of what they were buying. | 0:21:36 | 0:21:39 | |
Families invested fortunes. | 0:21:40 | 0:21:43 | |
A single bulb even traded for a flourishing brewery. | 0:21:43 | 0:21:47 | |
There was no stopping the wild speculation. | 0:21:47 | 0:21:51 | |
The world's first bubble economy was about to burst. | 0:21:51 | 0:21:56 | |
So this is the painting I wanted to show you, | 0:22:02 | 0:22:04 | |
which admirably sums up the entire mania aspect of tulip mania. | 0:22:04 | 0:22:10 | |
Yeah, it does, doesn't it? | 0:22:10 | 0:22:12 | |
What's its title, Hank? | 0:22:12 | 0:22:13 | |
-It's called De Mallewagen, or The Fool's Wagon. -Yeah. | 0:22:13 | 0:22:16 | |
The wagon is gathering speed and everyone wants to get... | 0:22:16 | 0:22:19 | |
-To jump on the wagon. -To jump on the wagon, to partake in the tulip mania. | 0:22:19 | 0:22:24 | |
So who's the lady in the centre? | 0:22:24 | 0:22:28 | |
On top of the wagon you see flower goddess Flora, | 0:22:28 | 0:22:32 | |
the Roman goddess of flowers. | 0:22:32 | 0:22:34 | |
She's depicted as unreliable, a fraud, a cheat. | 0:22:34 | 0:22:37 | |
She has tulips in her hand. She's surrounded by fools. | 0:22:37 | 0:22:43 | |
It's all out of greed, is the suggestion. | 0:22:43 | 0:22:45 | |
Then the old man with a bag of money. | 0:22:45 | 0:22:48 | |
What you'll see is that actually this all goes nowhere. | 0:22:48 | 0:22:51 | |
The sailing wagon ends up, in the end, in the sea, | 0:22:51 | 0:22:54 | |
and everyone aboard drowns. | 0:22:54 | 0:22:55 | |
So what actually happened then? | 0:22:55 | 0:22:57 | |
It starts with an auction in Haarlem, | 0:22:59 | 0:23:01 | |
on the 3rd of February 1637, where nobody wants to buy tulips any more. | 0:23:01 | 0:23:07 | |
They lower the price three times, but nobody wants to buy. | 0:23:07 | 0:23:10 | |
Then they realised something is wrong. | 0:23:10 | 0:23:12 | |
Over the next few days, the entire tulip trade in the Netherlands stops. | 0:23:12 | 0:23:17 | |
Almost overnight it changes. | 0:23:17 | 0:23:18 | |
Yes, almost overnight it changes. It comes to an end. | 0:23:18 | 0:23:21 | |
They thought it was a trade in things which actually had no | 0:23:21 | 0:23:24 | |
intrinsic value to them. | 0:23:24 | 0:23:26 | |
It wasn't a real trade. | 0:23:26 | 0:23:28 | |
Instead of an object of admiration, | 0:23:28 | 0:23:30 | |
the tulip becomes a symbol of foolishness and ridicule. | 0:23:30 | 0:23:34 | |
But what caused these prized markings in the Semper Augustus, | 0:23:35 | 0:23:39 | |
this symbol of the mania and folly? | 0:23:39 | 0:23:42 | |
They were known as broken tulips and the answer is in their name. | 0:23:44 | 0:23:48 | |
Broken tulips are the mutant survivors of a virus | 0:23:51 | 0:23:54 | |
that usually kills tulips. | 0:23:54 | 0:23:55 | |
The Semper Augustus should have been red, but the virus inhibits | 0:23:58 | 0:24:04 | |
the formation of the red pigment as the petals develop. | 0:24:04 | 0:24:07 | |
These breaks in the pigment reveal the underlying white tissue, | 0:24:08 | 0:24:13 | |
creating these mesmerising patterns. | 0:24:13 | 0:24:16 | |
Each broken tulip is different, | 0:24:18 | 0:24:21 | |
each a unique mosaic of marking and colour. | 0:24:21 | 0:24:24 | |
Importantly, the virus dramatically inhibits | 0:24:27 | 0:24:30 | |
the plant's ability to reproduce. | 0:24:30 | 0:24:33 | |
So it wasn't just their exquisite beauty that made these tulip | 0:24:35 | 0:24:38 | |
so expensive, it was their rarity. | 0:24:38 | 0:24:41 | |
Even at the height of tulip mania, | 0:24:43 | 0:24:45 | |
there were only ever a handful of broken tulips in circulation. | 0:24:45 | 0:24:50 | |
At long last, I'm about to see what all the fuss was about. | 0:24:54 | 0:24:58 | |
They told me I'd find you here in the middle of your tulips. | 0:25:00 | 0:25:03 | |
I'm Carol, how do you do? | 0:25:03 | 0:25:05 | |
'Jan Ligthart is a tulip breeder. | 0:25:05 | 0:25:07 | |
'With other 30 tulip varieties to his name, | 0:25:07 | 0:25:10 | |
'he's one of the biggest producers in Holland.' | 0:25:10 | 0:25:13 | |
He started growing tulips at the age of 13, | 0:25:14 | 0:25:17 | |
made his first hybrid at 17 and knows just about everything | 0:25:17 | 0:25:22 | |
there is to know about tulips, especially broken ones. | 0:25:22 | 0:25:25 | |
Look at that, that's just like those tulips | 0:25:29 | 0:25:32 | |
we saw in the Frans Hals Museum in the book. | 0:25:32 | 0:25:35 | |
Yeah, this is a broken tulip. | 0:25:35 | 0:25:37 | |
-But they were sick. -They were sick. | 0:25:37 | 0:25:40 | |
-So we don't want them. -Right. -They have to get out of it. | 0:25:40 | 0:25:43 | |
-It's garbage, it's worthless. -It's dangerous. | 0:25:44 | 0:25:48 | |
It's very dangerous, | 0:25:48 | 0:25:49 | |
because this illness can spread all over the field. | 0:25:49 | 0:25:52 | |
-Yeah. -We take it out and destroy it. | 0:25:52 | 0:25:54 | |
Although Jan must destroy any broken tulips he finds, | 0:25:54 | 0:25:58 | |
his ancestral reverence for these flowers remains. | 0:25:58 | 0:26:02 | |
His passion in life is creating healthy versions | 0:26:02 | 0:26:05 | |
of these flawed beauties. | 0:26:05 | 0:26:08 | |
-So these are all your... -These are all new broken tulips. | 0:26:08 | 0:26:12 | |
-New broken tulips? -Yeah. Look at this. | 0:26:12 | 0:26:14 | |
How amazing. | 0:26:14 | 0:26:16 | |
-Beautiful. -This is one of a kind. This is the only one in the world. | 0:26:16 | 0:26:19 | |
-I found it last year. -Yeah? -Yeah. | 0:26:19 | 0:26:21 | |
So the whole point about this is that you walk around | 0:26:21 | 0:26:25 | |
and you find these, these are natural mutations. | 0:26:25 | 0:26:28 | |
Yeah, by accident. You have to be lucky. | 0:26:28 | 0:26:32 | |
There's a lot more to it than luck. | 0:26:32 | 0:26:35 | |
You need intuition, dedication and a few decades. | 0:26:35 | 0:26:39 | |
Each one starts with a simple idea of combining two flowers. | 0:26:40 | 0:26:44 | |
-So you've got a picture in your mind already. -Yeah. In a way it is, yeah. | 0:26:46 | 0:26:51 | |
Keep your fingers crossed, wait till the seed grows, and then what? | 0:26:51 | 0:26:55 | |
Do you keep them all? | 0:26:55 | 0:26:56 | |
No. From 10,000-15,000 pieces, you only select maybe ten of them. | 0:26:56 | 0:27:02 | |
CAROL GASPS Only the best. | 0:27:02 | 0:27:03 | |
-Only the best. -Only the best. | 0:27:03 | 0:27:06 | |
-Well, this is beautiful. -It's lovely. | 0:27:06 | 0:27:08 | |
Three years ago, I found the first plant, | 0:27:08 | 0:27:10 | |
the two kinds of colours really broken but without virus. | 0:27:10 | 0:27:16 | |
So you would gradually, gradually build up a stock of this. | 0:27:16 | 0:27:19 | |
-What do you do? -It takes many years. -And a lot of patience. -Yes. | 0:27:19 | 0:27:23 | |
You've got some very, very new sort of tulips here, haven't you? | 0:27:25 | 0:27:30 | |
-It's a crossing between the Pearl tulip and the Fringe tulip. -Right. | 0:27:30 | 0:27:34 | |
It's a brand-new tulip. Totally different. | 0:27:34 | 0:27:36 | |
Yeah, and available in 25 years. | 0:27:37 | 0:27:40 | |
-LAUGHING: -OK, I'll come back. | 0:27:40 | 0:27:42 | |
Jan's tulips are almost unbelievable | 0:27:45 | 0:27:48 | |
when you walk up and down these rows. | 0:27:48 | 0:27:51 | |
You see tulips that you could never, ever have imagined. | 0:27:51 | 0:27:55 | |
Jan's patient work reflects the sense of romance that | 0:27:57 | 0:28:01 | |
inspired both the Dutch and the Ottoman tulip enthusiasts. | 0:28:01 | 0:28:05 | |
Having followed the story of the original broken tulips, | 0:28:08 | 0:28:12 | |
I feel sad that the infinite possibilities of these | 0:28:12 | 0:28:16 | |
exquisite but flawed flowers can no longer be enjoyed. | 0:28:16 | 0:28:20 | |
Though the virus is now under control, | 0:28:23 | 0:28:25 | |
one infection remains - our love affair with the tulip. | 0:28:25 | 0:28:31 |