Early planting of tulips.

One of my least favourite jobs in the garden is planting bulbs; it's such a laborious job and I always forget where I've planted them and then end up sticking a spade through one. You can put little markers in but I'm not a lover of this method and even if I just put a little sprinkling of darker soil on top the chickens will soon have scraped it off in their search for grubs. However much I hate planting them, there is something so heart warming when, after a cold and dark winter, little shoots push through the hard soil to promise you a blaze of hope that warmer weather is on it's way. By February I am desperate for some life in the garden. Whilst the bones of the garden, the evergreens, are present all year round for colour, shape and form the arrival of those little buds, boldly trumpeting the arrival of Spring is such a welcome sight and I regret not spending more time and money on a bigger show of these flowering bulbs. When we moved here last February we had nothing of note in the garden and the tulips paid for themselves every time I saw them.
Planting them in pots means you can move them around for instant colour anywhere you want in the garden (just make sure you don't place the pot over something coming up under the ground).

Along with the previous year's tulips I have added
6 Fancy Frills (bright pink)
20 Ballerina (orange)
12 Libretto Parrot (a sort of peach sundae colour)
12 Black Parrot (as the name suggests - and my favourites)
16 Spring Green (white and green)
40 Angelina (double pale pink)

I also purchased
3 Allium Giganteum @ £3.99 per bulb! Ouch.
12 Iris Pauline (purple)
15 Snake's-head Fritillary (purple and white)
25 Allium Roseum (pink)
8 Nectaroscordum Siculum. Allium (pink, green and white)
15 Anemone 'The Bride' (white with green)
12 Puschleimia Libanatica Alba (white)
12 Chionodoxa Lucilae Alba (Glory of the Snow)
A few week's ago I bought 12 tall snowdrops and 25 single snowdrops which I planted around the base of the Acer.

Although this makes over 100 tulips for this year alone I won't regret this purchase and will be thinking I should have bought more (although I had to buy them in two separate purchases after I'd justified spending so much on them). 80 sounds quite a lot but for a great show you could use hundreds and not be crowded out.
I've put some in the ground but the majority of them are in pots.
I've mixed the bright pink Fancy Frills ( a fringed variety) with the double Angelique pinks for contrast in shape but keeping the colour similar. Underplanting these with Allium Roseum for more subtle tiny pink buds should produce a frothy mass of flower. The Black Parrot tulips have been mixed with the upright orange Ballerinas for a real contrast. I've also added Snake's-head Fritillary to flower underneath them.
Along with the Spring Green tulips I've added some other bulbs, Anemone 'The Bride' with their white petals and green centres. These pots will be easy on the eye and wil sit alongside the other colours quite happily without jarring.
I still have half the bulbs to plant up and already have eight pots completed and topped with pansies and violas. Now to find a place to put them!