Single Red Tulip

In 1999, my wife Marian and I were blessed with the opportunity to visit the Netherlands. Some of you may know this as Holland. More on that later.

At that time, my wife and I were members of a wonderful semi-professional vocal ensemble from the Tampa Bay area called the Clifton Street Singers. We traveled to Amsterdam for a week of concerts.

Now, back to that earlier reference to Holland. The people from this region who first explored the world were, in fact, from the country of Holland. In time, this area became the Netherlands coastal provinces of North Holland and South Holland. And located in North Holland is Amsterdam, the capital and largest city in the Netherlands. Okay. That covers the history and geography portion of our tour. And now, back to our story.

The Netherlands are the world's leading supplier of flowers, plants and trees. And during our visit, we toured the floral auction center near the town of Aalsmeer. One of the great exports of the Netherlands is flowers. Lots and lots of flowers. Much of these pass through the auction center at Aalsmeer. Every day, flowers come into the huge facility and are auctioned shipped off to florists and nurseries around the world. And the next day, it starts all over again. Acres and acres of flowers always coming and going. And such colors! It is truly breathtaking. But with all the many varieties, the one flower that folks think of most when they think of the Netherlands--when they think of Holland--is the tulip.

As far as we can tell, the tulip originated in Persia. But its cultivation for centuries in the Netherlands as forever linked the flower with this country of many flowers.

I was recently thinking about that wonderful trip and all of the flowers. Particularly, the tulips. And that was the inspiration for my Single Red Tulip. I hope you enjoy. I and I hope you enjoy my other offerings. More stories to follow soon!

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