By Mary Lackie

How do you acquire the title “Tulip Lady?” When you have planted 40,000 tulips in your garden, lectured to 300 garden clubs in the Southeast, and organized a National Tulip Society, you have earned it.

“When I started 42 years ago I didn’t know a tulip from a petunia,’ said Mrs. J.J. Nicholson, the Tulip Lady. “My husband brought home the first tulip bulb I ever grew.’ Since then, Mr. Nicholson has always shared his wife’s interest and love for the beautiful flowers.

The tulip lady, who describes herself as “an amateur dirt gardener”, plans a color chart each year—“The colors must blend, and the tulips should be planted in clusters,” she advised. She places each bulb in the ground herself, cuts every stem, and never lets a tulip die in the garden or “a petal touch the ground.” Mrs. Nicholson admits she has had a slow down this year there are only 5,000 tulips in the garden. Because she believes “It is almost a sin not to share flowers with others,” Mrs. Nicholson takes a bouquet to the hospital or gives them to her friends.

A trip to the Tulip Capital of America, Holland, Mich., in 1945 inspired Mrs. Nicholson to suggest to Mayor Hartsfield that Atlanta have a tulip festival, too. In appreciation, the Netherlands government presented the city of Atlanta with 30,000 tulip bulbs. Each year the festival is held in Hurt Park and elementary school children, dressed in Dutch costumes, present a program of folkdances and songs. This year the program is scheduled for April 14 at 6 p.m.

Atlanta’s first Tulip Club was organized in 1938 by Mrs. Nicholson. The club sponsors an annual city-wide tulip show at Rich’s auditorium. In 1946 Mrs. Nicholson became first president of the National Tulip Society when it was organized in New York. “Mr. Dupont was there, I don’t know which one,” she said, “just call him E.I.”—he had a kind face and was a great lover of tulips.”

Mrs. Nicholson’s interests are not limited to gardening. The family has always belonged to Shrine of the Immaculate Conception parish, and Mrs. Nicholson is past president of the Altar Society. “When we first came here 46 years ago, it was a fine church, and it still is,” she said.

A past president of St. Joseph’s Hospital Auxiliary, Mrs. Nicholson recalls it as “a most gratifying experience; I made some wonderful friends.” She has made friends through her lectures to garden clubs, but never accepts a fee. “I just tell the girls if you want to make a contribution, sent the money to the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cancer Home.”

In recognition for her work, Mrs. Nicholson has been awarded a certificate of merit from the Netherlands government, a 15-inch silver tulip, and “the greatest honor a flower lover can receive” –in 1945 the Marie Nicholson tulip was named for her. She describes it as “elegant.

A few years ago a letter arrived for Mrs. Nicholson from the Netherlands chairman in charge of classification and registration of all tulips. “It was a very upsetting experience,’ she said. “He had a beautiful new seedling, and wanted to name if for me.’

Mrs. Nicholson asked her husband for advice. “Daddy, what should I do? I already have my beautiful tulip; this is superfluous.” She wrote the tulip authority “to quiet the old soul”, and suggest he name the flower the Marie II. The tulip authority promptly answered: “I don’t like that.” The correspondence continued for almost two years. “And I have never even met the old gentleman,” Mrs. Nicholson said.

Finally, an airmail letter arrive form him. “At last I have the name,” he wrote, “I’ve got it! We will call it the Atlanta Tulip Lady. Reply at once.” Again, Mrs. Nicholson appealed to her husband. “Daddy, what shall I do?” He said, “Go on and take it.’ Mrs. Nicholson laughed, “Isn’t that priceless?”

“Now I have a great-granddaughter, two tulips and a little puppy cute as pie named for me,” said the tulip lady. She found the puppy “crying its heart out” in a neighbor’s basement, and asked permission to present it to Paul Leamys and “their four adoring children.” I’ve had a full life—the world doesn’t owe me a thing.” She said.

Mrs. Nicholson’s new hope and ambition is to write a book on tulip bulbs and tulip culture in America. The project will take a year. What advice does the tulip lady have for someone who loves flowers but can’t grow a scraggly philodendron? “You are lazy, just lazy.”