Tulips introduced to the Netherlands

Timeline

1. 1593Leiden University botanical garden · South HollandClusius was hired to run the Leiden University botanical garden, obtaining tulip bulbs from the Ottoman Empire (via the Austrian Habsburg court or trade channels) and successfully trial-growing them in the lowland Dutch climate.
2. 1594–1596Leiden University botanical garden · NetherlandsClusius systematically cultivated tulips in the garden, recording color variations and corresponding with other scholars; as an exotic rarity, the tulip drew attention from scholars and citizens, and the first records of large-scale cultivation in the Netherlands appeared.
3. 1596–1600Western Netherlands · NetherlandsClusius's garden was repeatedly burgled, and bulbs spread to private gardens in Amsterdam, Haarlem, and elsewhere; tulips gradually shifted from scholarly collections to commercial cultivation, laying the foundation for the tulip trade and speculative frenzy of the first half of the 17th century.