Garden planning

Theoretically, you're supposed to do this in winter, tucked up in front of a roaring fire when you can't do anything in the garden. I find it happens throughout the year, however, as I ponder over problem areas in the garden, or see things in other gardens that give me ideas.

Right now, I'm thinking about tulips for my front garden. I have just planted a rose (The Generous Gardener) out there, and am really enjoying the newly emerged foliage - proof that it's alive and doing what it's supposed to do! I think it would be nice to use tulips that will pick up on the colour of this foliage - my current front runner is 'Havran', perhaps combined with a white tulip (maybe 'Hakuun') to help it show up or, maybe with 'Princess Irene', which has purple colouring on the outer side of its petals.