Tulip festival at Alnwick Garden

DeJager the bulb merchant is doing a series of Spring tulip festivals at gardens around the country including Alnwick Garden.  As a friend of the garden I try to visit once a month, and was pleased to go today to see the tulips.  The garden has recently planted thousands of tulips in the new Cherry Orchard and are appealing for sponsors to get more of the 'Mistress' bulbs planted.

The display of tulips was lovely, in a room in the courtyard.  Unfortunately the varieties on display were not named which I found rather bizarre, as DeJager had leaflets and order forms so that you could order bulbs.  How could you decide on which bulbs you wanted if the ones on display weren't named?!

Today was the first day of the festival and most of the tulips were freshly picked and tightly in bud.  Nevertheless they still made a wonderful display.