Tulipomania may once again be stirring usually sane people into incredible action this Saturday for the first time in nearly four centuries. When the craze for tulips first struck it led to a speculative bubble in which some single bulbs sold for many times the average annual income. The Dutch traders sold bulbs before they’d even been harvested until the market collapsed in February 1637. While scholars debate the extent of this frenzy there is evidence that the 2010 tulipomania has at reached at least 694 people across the world, may be many hundred more by the time you reach this. This time what we might call mania is not an economic bubble but a little bit of public-spirited criminality in Glasgow, London, Paris, Toulouse, Brussels, Turin, Iowa. People have all signed up to take part in International Tulip Guerrilla Gardening Day, the first of what will be an annual global event, limited only of course by your hemisphere, local conditions and ambition to plant tulips beyond your boundaries.
Like International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening of 1 May (6,000 signed up to it this year), this is an event when people step outside and plant things in vacant public spaces. Technically it’s criminal damage but realistically it’s a pleasant way to garden, to plant a potential splash of springtime colour and an effective trigger for conversations with curious passers. Guerrilla gardening is a mania I’ve been pursuing for six years and I strongly encourage it.
To find out more about International Tulip Guerrilla Gardening Day visit GuerrillaGardening.org
Richard Reynolds is the author of ‘On Guerrilla Gardening: A handbook for gardening without boundaries’.
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