Blossoming garden

ST. LOUIS -- One of the nation's largest displays of rare tulips is poised to be in full bloom in a few weeks at the new Ottoman garden at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

While the Botanical Garden as a whole had nearly 90,000 flower bulbs planted last year, about 9,000 of those are in the Ottoman garden, which includes historic hybrid tulips with varieties dating from the 1500s.

The Ottoman garden focuses on Rembrandt tulips, which are infected with potyvirus. The virus causes color breaks in the petals, creating a feathered and streaked appearance in the blooms, said senior outdoor horticulturist Jason Delaney.

While home gardeners can grow tulips in a variety of styles these days, the Rembrandt tulips are particularly prized for their brilliant colors.

"It's a specialized collection. It's the real thing," Delaney said.

Many of the types of flowers in the garden first flourished in parts of Asia, with varieties then introduced to Europe through contact with the Ottoman Empire, garden officials said. The Turkish state controlled much of southeastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa at its height in the 16th and 17th centuries.

St. Louis and Istanbul, which was the capital of the Ottoman Empire, lie at roughly the same 40-degree latitude, offering an opportunity to grow similar plants, garden officials said.

The Dutch took the Ottoman appreciation for tulips to new lengths as their popularity spread further to the west, in some cases buying or trading small numbers of bulbs for family fortunes, the garden said.

The Ottoman entrance features a wood double-arched door. Brick walkways lead visitors to a center fountain, and at the garden's north end, a patio stands covered with a wooden arbor that has a tiled roof and painted murals of flowers.

It includes a persimmon fruit tree from China and a red-flowered mimosa tree from Iraq and Afghanistan that were highly regarded ornamentals during the Ottoman period.

The garden wasn't designed just for looks, but for its scent as well. Delaney said lemon trees, herbs like rosemary and thyme and flowers including jasmine, hyacinths, narcissus and lilies have been arranged to blend for a sweet-smelling experience.

The small Ottoman garden is just one attraction among the 79-acre gardens. Businessman Henry Shaw built his country estate on the grounds and worked to open the gardens to the public in 1859.

The garden's current director, Peter Raven, has written that the Missouri Botanical Garden rivals the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and the New York Botanical Garden "in the breadth and strength of its worldwide reach."

The garden's campuses in the St. Louis region had about 1.2 million visitors last year. Attendance was up by about 340,000 visitors mainly due to a Dale Chihuly glass show at the garden that drew large crowds, said a garden spokeswoman Lisa Brandon.

On April 28, the Missouri Botanical Garden opens Chapungu, a show of monumental stone sculptures by the Shona people of Zimbabwe.

The Ottoman Garden was made possible by a gift from the late Edward L. Bakewell Jr.

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If You Go...

MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN: 4344 Shaw Blvd., St. Louis; www.mobot.org. Main number, 314-577-5100. Open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Garden admission is $8 for adults. Free for children 12 and under.