Tulips have become something it is almost impossible to consider a spring without here. Flames of new colour, quite out of place on our hillside, and as exotic as any flower that is able to hold its own in our cool, damp climate.

I made a place for them straight away in the old vegetable garden, lining out fifteen or so varieties, thirty of each in a row. I had grown them in pots for years in London, but with the new land there has been a child-in-a-sweetshop approach to new experimentation. Each August we choose what we like the look of from the catalogues, ordering wholesale to buy in quantity. The bulbs, which are easy in the hand with their silky tunics, are lined out at the end of the season in November – the best time for tulips as the cold helps to prevent tulip fire, the fungal disease which can ruin your blooms come spring.