History of roken tulip Tulip cultivation likely began in Persia (Iran) in the 10th century, and it eventually became a symbol of the Ottoman Empire . Tulips were introduced to the Western world by Augier Ghislain de Busbecq , the Viennese ambassador to Turkey, who wrote of seeing the plants in Edirne, Turkey, in 1551 and later sent some seeds to Austria. The arrival at Antwerp in 1562 of a cargo of tulip bulbs from Constantinople (now Istanbul) marked the beginning of the horticultural tulip industry in Europe. An early recipient of these flowers was French botanist Carolus Clusius , who was an avid bulb grower and is often credited with the spread of other spring bulbs, such as hyacinths and irises , across Europe. In the 1590s he established a botanic garden at the University of Leiden and cultivated tulips there. In 1596 and again in 1598, broken tulips (tulips that bloom in streaks or flames of colour) were stolen from Clusius’s garden, and the genetically