In October I prepare the soil and fertilize it.

Later, I start planting the bulbs, making clusters arranged by colour and size: a clump of intense red, some purple, simple white (purissima), white with a green stripe (spring green) and white of wrinkled edges (parrot) at the front. Purple, nearly blue, with some red, near orange of yellow edges. And the black ones, the queen of night, that will come out the last ones.
In total I figure that I shall have about 500 flowers.

In January the apices are beginning to show, they all seem identical and now I cannot longer remember where each one exactly is. The waiting begins. By the shape of the leaves, the parrot can be guessed.

March. The flowers have grown and start opening. The firs tulips are small with a lis shape, (turquestanica), when they open, they do so on a star shape. The rest follow and soon there is a big red and purple  patch. The white ones come at the front and among them, I see some small ones with red flames. They are rembrandt, the most used in flower paintings. The bulbs were buried last year and I didn't think they would flower.

One has to be on the watch not to miss the changes that happen during the day in each flower depending on temperature and light.