It is hard to imagine anything more beautiful than a spring garden.

Plantings of tulips, daffodils and hyacinths have beauty all their own. But in order to have a lovely spring garden you must start planning now.

Tulips are among the most magical of all the spring flowers. They come in all sizes ranging from a few inches in height to 3 feet or more. Their flower shapes also vary with singles and doubles and fringe or plain petals.

Tulips also have a wide array of colors with shades ranging from white to dark maroon black. They also have variable bloom times ranging from early to late spring, so with proper planning they can dress the garden for most of the season.

Their bulbs — dried, shriveled peices of vegetation that bear a faint resemblance to old onions — are dropped into the ground in the fall. They stay there through the winter and, almost magically, grow and bloom in the spring.

The tulip's story starts in the fields of Holland — or other areas where they're cultivated around the world. The way cultivators plant, water, fertilize and tend their fields determines your success next spring. The bulbs are tended throughout the spring and then harvested, stored and shipped to local garden centers.

The bulbs arrive as self-contained parcels that hold all of the energy needed to bloom next spring. All they need is for you to provide the right place at the right time. Some gardeners don't understand the need to plant tulips in the fall. They delay until spring still hoping for the best. But tulip bulbs must be in the ground over the winter so they can chill.

Like the spring weather it's impossible to predict with any accuracy when your summer flowers are going to freeze. But it is not necessary to wait until that happens to start getting the spring garden planted.

The Netherlands Flower Bulb Information Center recently included several tulips in their listing of top romantic bulbs. To create the special flower bed in your own garden, consider using these varieties, which are all top-performers in the home garden.

T. passionale is one of the most popular hybrids of the early and late single tulips called Triumphs. It is a medium-tall, midseason bloomer that produces sturdy stems with a large flower of purple petals with darker purple flames on the exterior and a red-purple wash on the interior.

The flowers tolerate wet, windy weather and can be planted in containers or flower beds. They can even be grown indoors. They make excellent cut flowers.

Queen of Night, christened in 1944, is still considered a top contender for the title of "blackest" tulip, although its color is actually a deep, velvety maroon. This single, late tulip is prized for the classic tulip shape of a rectangular cup with petals that are flat across the top.