These are not my tulips

Spring's pretty far along here, as everywhere in the country it seems. I cleaned out this bed on Saturday, and am still very happy with what's in there. I'll have to divide the iris again next year. They're so hardy, it's too bad I can't replace my grass with them. In this bed, different plants are dominant at different times of the season, just like in a real garden bed. It just sort of worked out that way, I can't really take much credit for it. But I do like the look. This bed is right outside my back door, so I see its progress daily.

Anyway, the tulips. Those aren't my tulips.

I have this thing against white flowers. At first it wasn't conscious, but after a few years of gardening and not considering white a color, I see that I don't have any white flowers in my garden. Seems to me that if a flower comes in a color, I'll favor that instead of white. There's a house up the street that had a nice little bunch of tulips in red, orange and purple, and I think that's what I was going for when I bought bulbs last year.

As you can see, the first ones to pop are white. They're a little washed out in this picture, as they are really a cream color, but they still count as white in my gardening mindset. I cannot believe that I chose these. Anything's possible, of course, but especially in the spring, I want a vibrant pop of color. The best I can figure is that they got mixed up at the nursery where I bought them. I don't have the time or energy to dig them up and return them, and will enjoy them just about as much as ones with bright colors. I'll take another picture when the rest pop to see what color scheme is actually planted there.