Colors of Spring

Not one of Flora's brilliant race
A form more perfect can display;
Art could not feign more simple grace
Nor Nature take a line away.
                  -James Montgomery "On Planting a Tulip-root"

I never cease to be amazed by the grace that tulips have, whether standing alone, trying to hold its own in the wind or arranged neatly like soldiers on a parade ground, arranged by colors... I have always felt that they are the most photogenic of all flowers

Most people always associate tulips with Holland or The Netherlands, but did you know that these flowers were originally native to Persia (Iran) and Turkey and introduced to Western Europe only in the late 1500s? In fact, tulips are the national flowers of both Iran and Turkey !

I am in Florida today and have not seen many tulips around here, but New Jersey has tulips in various states of bloom all over -

Here are some pictures from our own small garden...