Sunday 8th May 2016

The Years Rolleth Round evermore – tulips of course a vital element. A year without tulips? There would be no year. These strange, lonely, freakish flowers thrusting forth on their spindly tentative stems, fragile in their boldness, stand-offish even when grouped.

Each year I stage displays in my front area, back garden and top terrace – 3 kinds in each place, which is always fraught. Will the nurseries send the right kinds? Last year in the back garden, yellow tulips, not ordered, appeared. Or my selection will turn out to be ill-advised, not to say a question of ‘what could I have been thinking?’ This year in the front area, I reeled in horror: pink and orange tulips emerged into the glorious light of day. One of the worst colour clashes known. But after a day or two, I observed that somehow they were functioning although very bedroom.

Let me speak no more and usher in the graphs

Front Area: Menton, Stunning Apricot and Ballerina: What Could I have Been Thinking of? Very Bedroom, Yet I get Away with It, I Hope

Front Area: Night-time View of Stunning Apricot, Ballerina and Mention

Another Night-time View of the Front Area Tulips

The Top Terrace: Bloms Sent Red Proud, Not First Proud which is Lemon Yellow. Red Not Quite What was Wanted

Well… What do you Think? Red Proud Sent by Mistake by Bloms: Bello Epoque and Shirley Otherwise

Back Garden: What was Ordered Came Up: Jackpot, Paul Schreer, Abu Hussein: Persian Carpet, Darling

Abu Hussein, Paul Schreer, Jackpot: As Ordered: With a Touch of a Carefully Selected Osteospermum which Can Be a Stiff Plant, if You’re Not Careful