The tulips are a little late this year, but worth the wait. Most of mine are randomly planted in oak half barrels, with blends that contain oranges, black and pinks. I have a mixture of April Triumphs and later May-flowering single lates, doubles and very ornate parrots. These should give me four weeks of sock-it-to you colour, if the weather behaves. I’m growing several that I adore and tend to reorder year after year, but others are new experiments. My regulars include ‘Cairo’ which is apparently the colour of burnished Saharan sand at sunset and sadly the nearest I will probably ever get to to the Sahara. ‘Cairo’ should flower in late-April in most years and it develops an almost metallic sheen as it ages. I am also growing ‘Orange Emperor’, a fresh vision of orange and green that flowers early on. This is quite perennial when planted in borders. Finally I always grow the very warm-orange single early called ‘Prinses Irene’ for its purple flaming because this highlights pinks and purples really well. I have added a similar parrot form, named ‘Irene Parrot’, and ‘Couleur Cardinal’, a shorter red. The latter produced ‘Prinses Irene’ as a sport, or genetic mutation. I am also entirely confident that my ‘Black Hero’, a double form of ‘Queen of the Night’, will do well with its sultry, artichoke-shaped flowers that last forever.

Others are newer to me and, therefore, slightly worrying. They include ‘Menton’, a shapely and very tall single late with pearlescent coral-pink flowers that may clash horribly. I have heard so many rave about ‘Menton’ that I had to try it again, after failing to like it first time round. I have also added an earlier dark tulip, a Triumph called ‘Black Jack’. Dark tulips are wonderful, but they do need brighter partners otherwise they fade into the bare earth. There are wild cards and they include the following Triumphs, tulips bred for the cut-flower market that tend to be shorter (usually about two feet or 60cm) with smaller thickly petalled, egg-shaped flowers. ‘Havran’ is a blackcurrant tulip with foliage edged in cream. ‘Jan Reus’ is a deep-red and ‘Hermitage’ is a red-flame orange and they should look at home. ‘Helmar’ is a dramatic yellow, with red flaming, and a tulip that would suit Satan. I must have needed cheering up on the day I ordered it, or was I colour blind? Finally I’ve got ‘Malaika’ which reminds me of my grandmother’s silk underwear, not quite pink and not quite coral. I’ve randomly mixed these up so these bulbs will have to be discarded after one session as they are completely muddled. If you want to grow tulips in your garden and leave them in, always take off the spent flower at the base and cut back to one full leaf. Then feed them with a balanced fertiliser such us Vitax Q4. ‘Spring Green’ (a green-tinged white), ‘Negrita’ (a beetroot-purple), ‘Ballerina’ (a scented terracotta lily-flowered) and the dark egg-shaped ‘Queen of Night’ are all classics good at returning. Use a good supplier such as Peter Nyssen (peternyssen.com/ 0161 747 4000).

Keep an eye out for tulip fire, a fungal disease which distorts the foliage and curls up the leaves. Tulips are prone and for this reason they are planted out in cold conditions that will not encourage any fungal spores to spread. November and December are tulip-planting months, unfortunately. That’s why I prefer containers to cold soil.