This passion for these brilliant flowers continues today, with them being one of the top five best-selling flowers in the world.
The stem bears a large, cup-shaped, single-petaled flower with several lobes near the base of the plant. Flat waxy blue-green leaves. The flower has three petals on the inside and three matching sepals on the outside, making it look like a six-petaled flower. Petals and sepals may be single or double; long and pointed, round and strong, or somewhere in between; curled inward, arched outward, or upright; solid, bicolor, striped, checkered, fringed or one of many combinations. The stamens, pistils, and center can be any color from subtle yellow to red to black, but usually contrast with the color of the petals.
bloom in spring and sleep in summer , grows in winter and requires periods of real or simulated summer warmth and winter cold for optimal development. Commercial flower growers treat them as annuals, digging and cooling tulip bulbs in the fall and then replanting them in late winter and early spring when demand is highest to achieve accurate bloom times.
They are sold both as cut flowers and as potted plants .
