Tulips in Palestine
De Appel Foundation, Netherlands
2006

Tulips in Palestine
Just in time for the blossoming of the flower fields, The Palestinian Museum of Natural History and Humankind pursues activities in the Netherlands for the first time!  We are pleased to announce that the Botanical Department of the Museum will publicly launch the campaign Tulips in Palestine at De Appel Foundation in Amsterdam.

Collaborating with a range of Dutch institutions, the Museum will study and collect hybrid tulips in order to plant them in natural settings in Palestine. This exciting insertion into the local flora and fauna is being coordinated and supported by the Center for Architectural Conservation, Riwaq. A wide number of audiences will be able to enjoy this special project, and the Botanical Department will enrich its permanent collection through this substantial acquisition.

- From the Museum Newsletter April-May 2006

The tulip has been used over the years to symbolize perfection, eternity, and enduring love according to Persian legend. It has also come to represent a taste for finery and decoration to the extent of becoming the object of intense financial speculation in the "tulip fever" that took hold in the Golden Age of the Netherlands.

On this occasion, the Botanical Section of The Palestinian Museum of Natural History and Humankind will present the tulip plant as a new item/acquisition of its collection and will introduce the result of its research into the historical and symbolic value of the plant in the Museum’s newsletter. It will as well launch the campaign Tulips in Palestine, which aims at collecting tulip bulbs and planting them in Palestine, as an attempt to activate a new process of natural (and cultural) exchange.

- From the Mercury in Retrograde website