I remember listening to this on the radio when I was a young kid. I remember being very much moved by the story.
When I read it nearly fifty years later, I found the story quite simplistic, as compared to some of Alexander Dumas' (father) better novels, like The Count of Monte Cristo”. Cornelius van Baerle is an enthusiast of tulips and he is raising lots of different types of tulips in his garden. However, he is also the godson of the prominent Dutch politician Cornelius de Witt, who is torn to pieces by a mob along with his brother Johann de Witt as the novel unfolds. The Orangists who would like to end the Dutch Republic and bring King Willem to the throne have marked the two brothers as traitors, using their correspondence to the French King as evidence. The correspondence has been given to the custody of van Baerle, who keeps it not knowing the potential danger it has. His neighbour is spying on him and is envious of the tulips he's producing, being exceptionally afraid that van Baerle would be able to raise a Black Tulip which has a prize tag of 100,000 guilders. The envious neighbour alerts the authorities and van Baerle is arrested and put to jail. He has a love affair with the jail keeper's daughter Rosa, who in turn helps him secure the black tulip and protect it from the forays the neighbour secretly performs.
The writing is fine but as I said earlier, the plot is somewhat simplistic.
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