I have Tulipa Turkestanica – and lord, are they beautiful! Tiny spots of colour, superbly elegant in line and contour. Am I an idiot to be so happy when I see them dancing? 

There is a lot going on in my garden these days. After the massive show of snowdrops I now have daffodils – tiny ones with fringes, bigger ones with orange trumpets, and the big ones that seem so overblown when next to their more elegant family members. I keep all my daffs in containers, as they tend to disappear when I put them in the open ground. And I can make compositions …  

I also have those tiny spots of the veriest blue called wood squill, only now that I have them I want more. Lungwort adds blue and pink-ish, and the columbines send up their gray-green leaves. Bluebells mean business, and fritillaries are painting themselves purple and green. Whever came up with the idea of frittilaries having an Escher-like pattern?