Red tulips symbolize love, irresistible love, everlasting love, wealth, perfect or deep love, rebirth, and charity.
Tulips come in different colors, and there are different meanings associated with each color of tulip. For example, the white tulip stands for purity and innocence.
Forgiveness is also one of the meanings of a white tulip. The purple tulip stands for royalty. On the other hand, the yellow tulip represents cheerfulness, brightness, radiance, etc.
However, the red tulip is one of the most attractive and loved among all different colored tulips.
What do Red Tulips Symbolize?
1. Love
Similar to the red rose, the red tulips are associated with love. This is because red is the color of romance. Therefore, red tulips meaning include eternal love, undying love, perfect love, true love, etc.
2. Passionate Romance
Secondly, red tulips also symbolize one’s belief in love or irresistible love.
The symbolic meaning of red tulips among natives of the Netherlands and other parts of Europe is that the person is “on fire with love.”
If you believe in love and wish to express your love and feelings to your beloved saying ‘believe me,’ then you can gift her a red tulip or red tulip bouquet.
See Also: Orange Tulip Symbolism
3. Everlasting Love
This flower is associated with the 11th wedding anniversary and can be the perfect gift for this occasion. It’s a celebration of the long enduring nature of the husband and wife’s love.
A single tulip, a bouquet, or even a potted red tulip plant could be used on this occasion. A potted red tulip is particularly nice because it can be planted in the garden and, like your love, last for many years.
4. Wealth and Success
Red tulips also symbolize wealth, and some believe that they will bring both wealth and love to the person who successfully grows them in their garden.
According to Feng shui, having red tulips at home can also bring fame or increase the person’s power to gain fame quickly.
5. Perfect or Deep Love
While most red flowers only symbolize passionate love, red tulips tend to symbolize an ongoing, perfect, passion for lovers.
They’re ideal to give to someone for whom you have a deep, unconditional love. Usually, this is your wife, fiancé, or long-running partner.
6. Rebirth
As tulips bloom at the beginning of spring they also have a meaning of rebirth.
A lovely bouquet of tulips would make a wonderful gift If you know someone going through some life changes. For example, taking on new adventures and challenges of welcoming a new member to the family.
7. Charity
Since the Victorian era tulips have also been a symbol of charity. With its cheerful nature and mark of a new season and new beginnings, many charities today still use the beloved tulip flower to represent them.
History of Tulips
Most people think that tulips originated in the Netherlands with how iconic they are in this place. But, they came from Central Asia where they grew as a wildflower.
And they were first cultivated in Turkey around 1000AD. The tulip name comes from the Turkish word for ‘turban’ for their similar appearances.
Tulips were brought over to Europe in the 16th century by a biologist called Carolus Clusius. And by the 17th century, the popularity of tulips soared. Europeans couldn’t get enough of the delightful blooms!
The Netherlands loved tulips so much a phenomenon named ‘the tulip mania’ came in and caused the price of the flowers to skyrocket, crashing the markets.
In the early 18th century, tulips were taking the world by storm. Turkey even had a whole tulip festival dedicated to them, which is still held today and is an impressive sight to see!
And it was a crime that was punishable by exile to either buy or sell tulips outside of the capital.
Nowadays, tulips represent one of the most popular flowers in the world. Holland is the most popular place for tulips, with beautiful colors that you can see during springtime.
The Significance of Tulips
Turkey isn’t the only place where tulips are historically significant. In the late 16th century, tulips went to the Netherlands from Turkey. Tulips were a novelty and fairly expensive.
Eventually, they contracted the non-fatal mosaic virus, which made their petals brighter and unique, so the price of tulips began to rise even more.
As the value of tulips increased, people began trading their land and savings to acquire more bulbs. However, eventually, many people were trying to sell the bulbs, and not many were buying, causing prices to drop and the tulip market to crash during the 17th century.
This crash left the Dutch very hesitant about investing for long periods.
Despite this, tulips have remained extremely popular in the Netherlands. Every year Amsterdam celebrates National Tulip Day in January.
On this day, Dutch tulip growers build a huge tulip garden on Dam Square, and people come and pick a free bouquet. This event marks the beginning of tulip season.
Uses for a Tulip
There are stories of people eating tulip bulbs during World War II, especially during the Dutch famine.
According to J.H. Warmerdam, a man who grew up in Holland during WWII, the bulbs gave people skin rashes and were not pleasant. However, since not many tulips were planted that year, there was a large stock around the country.
It isn’t common to eat tulip bulbs anymore, and many believe they shouldn’t be ingested. However, tulip petals can be eaten and are often used to garnish salads and other dishes.
Whether you want to express your deep love or just want to brighten someone’s day with these vibrant flowers, tulips are a great way to show how you feel and add a pop of color to a room!
Other Symbolism of Red Tulips
The Shape: When the red tulip flower is in an upright position, it has a cup shape figure. But it’s star-shaped when laid flat.
Petals: The petals of a red tulip can either be solid in color or may come with markings. However, all red tulips come with six tepals composed of three sepals and three petals.
Numerology: The tulip has a numerical expression of 6 that represents lovers.
Color: The color red is often associated with passion and love. So just like a red rose, the red tulip is also associated with romantic meanings.
The Legend of Tulips
In this legend, there was once a young man called Farhad. One day, he saw a beautiful young princess named Shirin.
The young man was in love with her. However, before expressing his love, he received news of her death. In his grief, he killed himself, and red tulips grew in the place where drops of his blood fell.
According to another version of the legend, young Farhad was in love with Shirin; however, she did not reciprocate his love.
Overcome by grief, the young man killed himself and his drops turned into red tulips. Consequently, these flowers are associated with eternal or true love.
Other Red Flower Meanings:
Conclusion
The meaning and symbolism of red tulips are more or less similar to that of red roses. These two flowers stand for love and romance. So, if you are about to declare your love to someone, try to be unique and go for red tulips instead of the usual red roses.
I’m Chris and I run this website – a resource about symbolism, metaphors, idioms, and a whole lot more! Thanks for dropping by.