FEBRUARY TULIPS
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I wallow in winter. It’s my season for cozy afternoon naps, attacking the pile of best-sellers on the bedside table, finishing (at last) a knitted cabled sweater vest, and perfecting Ina’s recipe for skillet-roasted lemon chicken. (I think it needs more fennel and minced garlic. Help, Chef Gwennie!)
I blissfully identify with British poet Edith Sitwell’s words: “Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home."
Can you feel a “But….” looming?
But…. as days lengthen and crusty snow melts into the dun-colored front lawn here in the Wells woods, my spirits soar knowing that Daylight Savings begins March 10 and the first day of Spring is less than three weeks away. But nothing transports me to a vernal state-of-mind like rainbow-hued tulips on a frigid February Friday.
Mariah Dyer, an enterprising young woman in southern Maine, makes that happen. During the quiet winter months, she and her husband close Wandby Landing, their Kennebunk restaurant that’s lionized for delectable Italian fare and pizzas. Starting in October, Mariah dons gardening gloves and stagger-plants 18,500 tulip bulbs at Wild Aster Farm, inside “a rigid greenhouse attached to a big old barn that measures 30’x60’. Forcing tulips in the depths of winter allows me to put my hands in the dirt and enjoy beautiful colorful flowers when everything outside is dull and grey.”
As they begin to bloom, Mariah shares her harvest with locals via a “tulip subscription.” Every Thursday afternoon, I drive to Wandby Landing and pick up my luscious treasures. Yesterday, walking back to my car while tiptoeing around black ice, I spotted a friend embracing her bouquet. Neither of us could stop smiling!
Tulip trivia: originally growing as wildflowers in Central Asia, they became prized by the Turks as early as 1000 AD; Ottoman sultans even wore tulips on their turbans. In the 1600s, Dutch merchants began bringing home tulip bulbs. Especially prized were the “rare broken tulips that produced striped and speckled flowers.” Soon, Tulip Mania swept through Holland. Incredibly, in 1634, one bulb reportedly sold for 5,500 Guilders, more than three times the annual earnings of a typical merchant. That tulip was called the Semper Augustus and featured deep crimson flares against a milky white base. Even after Holland’s tulip bubble burst and prices receded, tulip fever lingered. Today, an astounding 90% of tulips are cultivated in the Netherlands. Tulips are also recognized as the national flower.
Mariah offers tulip tips: “They are big drinkers so cut the stems and change the water every other day. Tulips continue to grow in the vase but keeping them out of direct sun helps them last longer. Growing them brings me so much joy during the hardest days of the winter and I find myself dreaming of Spring when everything is green and you feel that the possibilities are endless for the summer season ahead.”
Mariah’s tulips (wildasterfarmme@gmail.com) are a sweet serendipity for those of us in Southern Maine. But these fabulous flowers are also available at supermarkets and florists in your home town too, so don’t overlook the joy they ignite as a lifeline to Spring.
