Capture the essence of spring in a vase. Nothing is as eloquent as tulips. Choose them for a sensational seasonal splash of color.

Tulips are affordable and abundantly available through the spring months.

With over 500 varieties of tulips, you’re sure to find just the color and style you need.

There’s nothing more cheerful than a bunch of tulips. Whether you choose solid colors or bicolors with tasteful stripes or flamelike patterns, they’re guaranteed to bring a smile to your face.

Pastels evoke the freshness of spring. Tulips come in a vast array of soft Easter egg colors-from the purest whites and creams to apricot, salmon, and soft yellows. The only thing missing is true blue.

For emotional impact choose hot-colored oranges and reds, or blackish tulips. These are sure to energize a room.

The mystery of the tulip is revealed in its many forms. Besides the classic style, you’ll find exuberant ruffled peony-flowered, fluffy parrot, and stately lily-flowered tulips.

Buy tulips with the buds still closed. Do the same if you’re cutting your own.

Before arranging tulips, recut them straight across the stem. This helps the flowers to get the water they need.

Use tulips alone, or mix-and-match with other flowers. Take precautions before combining them with daffodils or any other kind of narcissus. These blooms release a chemical that shortens the vase life of tulips and other flowers in arrangements.

You can still mix tulips with daffodils. Simply soak the daffodils first in a bucket of water to remove the harmful substance. Then create a perfect spring bouquet of tulips, daffodils, and other spring-flowering beauties.

For tulips, almost any container will do. Make sure it is clean. If in doubt, wash it out.

Tulips like cool, clean water. You may need to replenish the vase often. These are thirsty flowers. Better yet, change the water every other day. This prolongs the vase life. No floral preservative is needed.

A tulip will normally last for five to eight days. To maintain vase life keep the container away from sunny windows, heat ducts, and other hot spots.

Expect the unexpected with tulips. They have a will of their own. As they sit in the vase they will twist, turn, and bend like rock stars. This is Mother Nature at work. The stems are simply responding to light and gravity.

In the case of tulips and other spring flowering bulbs, the entire plant-bulb and all-can be used. Wash the soil off the roots, and place the bulb in clear glass or in a shallow dish. Cover the bulb with water. For a decorative touch, place stones, moss, or other material around the bulb.

Tulips are nature’s way of saying spring has arrived.