The Curious History of the Bulb Vase

Did you know that several types of plant bulbs, such as hyacinth, tulips, crocus, daffodils, amaryllis, snowdrops, and irises, can grow and bloom successfully in just water and provide a beautiful display in your home? The equipment invented to do that is the bulb vase. This book’s unusual subject (it is the only book on bulb vases in the Botany and Horticulture Library!) details the history of these vases from the 1700s through their prominence during the Victorian era and into present day. Photographs of various bulb vases are shown and described, so this book is valuable to the collector as well as the floral art form history buff. The book also highlights George Piercy Tye (1810-1879), a Birmingham, England industrialist who designed and produced bulb vases, with a specialization in hyacinth vases. The author Patricia Coccoris lives in Haarlem, Netherlands, the cradle of the Dutch bulb industry.