As the first days of winter unravel here in the southern hemisphere, it’s a mostly gloomy time. We’re faced with the shortest days of the year and it can get surprisingly cold, particularly during the morning and evening commute.

Luckily, winter also heralds the magical time of year where one can prepare for the spring that presently feels far away. I’m talking about bulb-planting of course! I love seeking out my bulbs (mostly stored in the fridge) and replanting them and the promise of springtime colour. Of course, tulips have my heart. When we think of tulips, one’s mind is instantly drawn to a red sea amongst green leaves in far-off Holland. However there are just so many varieties of tulips, with new ones constantly being refined and developed. Did you know that The Black Tulip is a novel written by Alexandre Dumas about the quest to develop a truly black tulip? And they still don’t properly exist, according to most sources (just very dark purple ones, instead).

I love the pop that tulips can give to a room or an arrangement. They also survive for quite some time, even growing in the vase after they’ve been cut. There is really nothing like the excitement when the first green shoot from a batch of tulips pokes its head from under the ground as if to say, ‘finally, a cold winter is over’. All that excitement is 12 or more weeks away! In the meantime, I’ll just be here waiting patiently and dreaming of the beautiful arrangements that I’ll be able to conjure up…