Named after tulips

[mount_oregano]

My latest novel, Dual Memory, drew very vague inspiration from the Dutch tulip bubble in the 1630s (the real tulipmania, not the hysterical pseudo-history). Because naming characters is hard (as Rebecca Makkai explains here), I decided to name as many people, places, and things as I could after tulips.

The available choices seemed close to infinite. One of the sources I used was the US National Gardening Association listing. Some of the names are unexpected because whoever develops or finds a cultivar of a plant gets to name it, and people can be moved by whimsy.

Tulip names tapped for the novel include:

Thule, a kind of Triumph tulip (see picture)

Antonio Moro, a pink Triumph tulip

Par Augustus (now extinct; tulip cultivars naturally peter out)

Cedonulle

Devenish

Miss Fanny Kemble

Ollioules

Ginrei

Ho Tcho

Ibiza

Koningin

Macx

Marathon

Moniuszko

Mussi Knol

Nico

Toproy

Oscar

Pinky

Romero

Goya

Switzer

Tetry Vivi

Valentinier

Wirosa

Antraciet

Bronzewing

Chatelaine

Marathon

Quidam

Swan

Upstar

Hocus Pocus

Rosella

Fontaine

Blanka

Grand Rapids

Farness

Wrestlemania (seriously?)