About this episode
From smuggled wealth hidden in the pockets of 17th-century refugees to imperial beheadings and long treks up freezing, desolate mountainsides... there's more to the humble tulip than you might think. And as the nights draw in, now is the perfect time to get planting these spring favourites. Garden designer Humaira Ikram shares her favourite varieties and ways of using them, and we head to Cambridge University Botanic Garden to discover a unique collection of species tulips and talk about their origins. Plus historian Fiona Davison tells the tale of how tulip mania shaped the history of Europe and gripped the Ottoman Empire to deadly effect.