Tulips have been bred and cultivated since they were brought to Holland in 1594. The tulip is a true bulb . It is a compressed stem with special scale-like leaves that serve as the primary storage tissue. Storage carbohydrates in tulips include both starch and fructan. Soluble sugars such as glucose, fructose, sucrose, fructan, and a number of glucose-based oligosaccharides are also present.
All commercial material is propagated vegetatively, mainly from natural division of the bulb.
Bulbs are replanted in the fall and through the winter, cold temperatures resulting in dormancy removal and a slow rate of shoot growth. The warm temperatures of spring induce rapid growth, shoot elongation, and flowering. Later in the spring one or more of the axillary buds at the base of the bulb scales begins growth into a daughter bulb, and the original mother scales shrivel and slowly disappear. Growth of the daughter bulb is nourished by the depleting mother scales as well as current photosynthesis from the leaves. By early summer, aerial organs senesce.