Fresh Tulips for Parkinson’s
April 16, 2009 by Ellen Ewart
Filed under Marketing
Today, on the TTC (the transit system in Toronto), I paid $6 for a small bouquet of white tulips. Proceeds of the sales were going to Parkinson’s.
The TTC platforms see all sorts of sales from pizza slices to eco-friendly bags, each supporting various charities. I often pass by and regret not spending a few dollars for a worthwhile cause. So today, when I heard Parkinson’s, and after my roommate told me she worried that her family was seeing the first signs of Parkinson’s in her father, I decided to take the time and the money.
The tulip is the flower that represents the Parkinson Society of Canada and a perfect flower to be handing out on a sunny spring day. Moreover, April is Parkinson Awareness Month.
Direct from the Parkinson Society of Canada’s Tulip factsheet,
The story of the Parkinson Tulip began in 1980 in the Netherlands when J.W.S. Van der Wereld, a Dutch horticulturalist who had Parkinson’s disease, developed a red and white tulip.
In 1981, Van der Wereld named his prized cultivar, the ‘Dr. James Parkinson’ tulip, to honour the man who first described his medical condition and to honour the International Year of the Disabled.
The tulip received the Award of Merit that same year from the Royal Horticultural Society in London England, and also received the Trial Garden Award from the Royal General Bulb Growers of Holland. It is described as a flower: ‘exterior, glowing cardinal red, small feathered white edge, outer base whitish; inside, currant-red to turkey-red, broad feathered white edge, anthers pale yellow’.
On April 11, 2005, the Red Tulip was launched as the Worldwide Symbol of Parkinson’s disease at the 9th World Parkinson’s disease Day Conference in Luxembourg.
What do you think of the tulip as the Parkinson Society’s flower and branding image?
Ellen
This is the 3rd attempt….had put my address in the website space.
Thank you for your great article, helping to raise awareness during Parkinson’s awareness month.
Today I sold 12 bunches of tulips at the Kingston nursing home where my husband Spence now is. He received his Parkinson diagnosis over 20 years ago.Parkinson’s has been my special cause ever since.
I wish to draw attention to the fact that it was JWS van der Wereld’s friend Mathew Zanbergen who suffered from Parkinson’s. When I produced 20,000 Parkinson Society 2007 calendars, (6 years in the making)I contacted Kees van der Wereld by e-mail and phone. He sent me a picture that was used on the April page in the tribute I wrote about his father. Mathew Zanberger was his father’s friend, with Parkinsons, and the motivation for developing the Parkinson tulip. His father died of cancer 1n May 2005.
Parkinson Society Canada presented me with the Dr.Morton Shulman Award in 2007
Now another idea I have had is a poster “FLOWERS TALK”
eg: Parkinsons Tulip
Cancer Daffodil
Alzheimers For Get Me Not
6 more examples would make a great poster without saying a word.
Could you help me find 6 more symbolic flowers?
Felicity McKendry
Thanks Felicity! I’ll do my best to look for more examples of symbolic flowers. Perhaps some of our readers might know of others around the world?