"In the spring, 20,000 tulips bloom; bulbs are planted anew each fall and the prior year's bulbs are given to neighborhood gardening groups." (from Central Park's website)

''It is impossible to comprehend the tulip mania without understanding just how different tulips were from every other flower known to horticulturists in the 17th century ... The colors they exhibited were more intense and more concentrated than those of ordinary plants.'' (from Business Week review of Tulipomania: The Story of the World's Most Coveted Flower, by Mike Dash)