And among the emerging cardoon leaves is 'negrita', a plum-coloured flower with rather thin leaves. But it is the Jewel garden where most of the tulips are and, to be honest, we should have had a lot more. But our chronic inability to order things at the right time and then the ridiculousness of the wet just when they should have been planted did for the best-laid plans. Of all the flowers that grow, tulips are the most jewel like, both in intensity of colour and tone and in opulence. Working for 10 years dressing women with jewels taught me how earrings or a brooch can lift and transform every stitch of clothing.
Tulips have that effect on a border.
There is 'Queen of Sheba', a burnished, Burmantoft red edged with orange. The other side of the main path is 'Abu Hassan', described in the catalogue as 'dark mahogany', which it isn't, but it does evoke that verbal struggle for richness. Like all triumph tulips, it is thick stemmed and ideal for cutting, although it is hard to take a single one from the garden. It makes sense to have a cutting area just for that purpose and to leave the border tulips well alone. Then there are the parrots.