After a year of languishing, New York City is flourishing. Well, at least the tulips are.
Many people have noted and documented the flowers sprouting from medians, sidewalk planters, parks and gardens around the city.
“I think they absolutely look more stunning than I have recalled in years. Taking tulip strolls has been a daily activity. I think the sidewalks in the last five years have gotten a lot better in general.”
-Olivia Rose
Owner of a plant design studio, wrote in an email.
But have the tulips changed, or have we?
The city planted the same number of tulip bulbs as it does most years: approximately 110,000 citywide, said Matthew Morrow, the director of horticulture for the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. And 60,000 bulbs were planted on Park Avenue between 54th and 86th Streets by the Fund for Park Avenue, just as it does every year.
So if the number of tulips is the same, why do they look so wonderful to us this year?
There may be “a memory phenomenon going on here,” said Christopher F. Chabris, a research psychologist who has studied selective attention. With memories of last year’s crop diminished by those of early-pandemic panic, the tulips “create a greater impression on you, not because they’ve been erased from your memory before, but because you have less recent memories of them,” he said, comparing the sight of the flowers to “the taste of a food you haven’t eaten in a while.”
New Yorkers agree. “Everything is just more beautiful after going through this horrible year,” said Monica Barrett, a real estate appraiser and environmental activist, gesturing at a patch of tulips striped in psychedelic scarlet, yellow and orange hues. “Looking at these, they’re hypnotizing. It’s almost like I’m high!”
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