For my spring maze I wanted to pick something that is a universal sign that spring is here. There’s no better sign that spring has arrived than seeing tulips popping up through the dirt.

As I tried to figure out which specific tulip to draw I kept coming back to the story of “tulip mania”. If you’re not familiar with “tulip mania”, the basic story is that it was considered to be one of the first speculative bubbles that drove the price of tulip bulbs to an outrageous rate.

If you’re above a certain age you have lived through several speculative bubbles and history continues to repeat itself. The most recent bubble that comes to mind is the BitCoin bubble but I’ve also been through the .com bubble and the housing bubble in my short adult life.

The reason I picked the Semper Augustus tulip is because it is possibly the most rare, famous and interesting tulip from the “tulip mania” story. At one point Semper Augustus tulip bulbs were selling for more than a house at the time. If you think it’s crazy that someone would pay that much for a flower remember it wasn’t that long ago that someone paid over $90,000 for a Princess Diana Beanie Baby.

Below are the color tests and sketches from the prep for the tulip maze. It was important that I got the color correct because it’s one of the distinguishing features of the Semper Augustus tulip. I always do a test scan and print to make sure colors will translate correctly when the mazes are converted into the digital format.

Did you enjoy this maze and want to try another similar maze? Check out my Rose Maze. If you’re looking for more free printable mazes check out my homepage.

If you don’t want to print the mazes at home please consider using the VistaPrint link below. VistaPrint is the vendor I use to print my mazes on card-stock to hand out to friends and family. I have found that they are the highest quality and the most affordable of the print vendors. Also I like that they allow for small batch printing which keeps the price affordable. I print them on 5.5 x 8.5 postcards and they turn out fantastic.

If you are thinking of making your own maze or are curious about any of the items I use feel free to check out my “tools of the trade” page. On that page you’ll find Amazon links to all the products I use. Please consider using my Amazon links to support the website.

Feel free to print or reproduce the puzzles for personal, church, school or institutional use. If you need puzzles or mazes for your small-to-medium circulation newspaper, or you would like to purchase puzzles or mazes for a book, periodical, app or website please contact me.