Tulips are one of the first varieties of flowers to bloom as spring takes over from winter. Easy to recognize, tulip hybrids are available in an enormous range of shapes, sizes, colors, and textures. They bloom from mid to late spring, but different varieties have slightly different times for blooming.

Tulips flower when the last of the snow is turning to water in the soil. But, you can grow tulips even before spring, as a tulip bulb can bloom in any type of soil. This makes for a great variety in the number of places you can have tulip blossoms: in a flowerbed, under a shrub, in a container, or even at the corners of a rock garden.

There are 15 tulip divisions, with a variety of large-flowered hybrids, making up 11 of the 15 divisions based on flowering time, flower size and form, and plant shade. Other species and species hybrids constitute the 4 other groups.

Tulip gardens are delightful and simple to set up because tulip bulbs are readily available; they are reasonably priced and have an assortment of colors and forms. You can purchase these bulbs from garden outlets and bulb catalogs that sell large-flowered garden tulips in packs of mixed colors based on group or in packs of named individual varieties. You can combine the large-flowered garden tulips with other flowers such as wallflowers and forget-me-nots, or you can use them as bedding plants. You can also plant them and distribute clusters amongst perennials or other bulbs. You can use the smaller species of tulips with stunning effect in rockeries, container gardens, or as borders, as their form is delicate and there is less choice of colors than among garden tulips.

Tulips can be satisfying to grow if you choose large, healthy-looking bulbs, have well-drained alkaline soil and plant them in a sunny spot.