Thursday, June 13, 2013

Danger of Tulips - Istanbul origins; and whither the natural habitat?


Keukenhof Gardens, tulips at markets everywhere, but there is a dark side.  See Istanbul's tulip festival. The tulip originated in the Ottoman Empire, and Turkey continues its long tradition with some 14,000,000 in bloom at its festival time -- all at a high cost to other interests, see http://latitude.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/istanbuls-tulip-festival-camouflages-the-destruction-of-its-green-spaces/. Tulipmania.  The issue is of competing values:  open space and natural habitats, or industrial behemoths of uniformity. 

Green spaces, or development -- not limited to the bulbs.  Bridges, parks, fall to the conformists' plantings. Is that so?