Completely unexpectedly, three kinds of tulips have returned to flower again and are doing just as well as last year. Perhaps they'll continue to do so for years to come and increase in the process, like the cottage or Darwin types and some of the easier wild species do.

The three are the lilyflowered, primrose-yellow and red 'Mona Lisa', the jewel-coloured and lively viridiflora tulip 'Doll's Minuet' and, after a sojourn in the compost heap, the unmistakably flamemarked triumph tulip, 'Gavota', called after the dance, I presume.

This latter has appeared amongst the purple sprouting broccoli to great effect, sprung from the garden compost that went into that piece of ground at the beginning of the season.

They look great.

They have also appeared in pots to reasonable effect with the excellent little narcissus 'Hawera', which is pale, multi-headed and very long-flowering. 'Hawera' is slim, its leaves grassy and this makes it good for growing . . . and dying away unobtrusively . . . in lawns. The same little daffodil also complements the yellow scented flowers of scented Coronilla citrina 'glauca' and the thuggish yellow-flowered dead-nettle, Lamium galeobdolon Variegatum.

In the Garden Every year, from the middle of April until May is out, our front garden smells strongly and deliciously of honey, swooningly so when the sun shines. The scent comes from three large flowering specimens of a very good, well-shaped and coloured free-seeding form of the honey spurge, Euphorbia mellifera, which originally came from a street market in Dungloe, Co Donegal.

The Euphorbia clan of herbaceous perennials, also known as spurge and milkweed but sometimes here in Dublin as 'Euphoria' and 'Euphobia' (and let nobody say a word against that quaintness), are a star lot in the spring garden, being good at taking over from early bulbs and hiding their dying foliage, before going on to enhance the plantings of tulips, which some are doing right now to great effect. The spurges are generally an obliging and carefree lot, happy in sun and partial shade and preferring a free-draining, fertile soil.

There is even one paragon (some would say thug), the evergreen, two foot tall E.

robbiae, which can cope perfectly well in poor dry soil and is in full lime-yellow flower right now under the emerging canopy of some big old deciduous trees.

A drawback to growing any spurge should be pointed out, as a warning to the unwary.

All the spurges exude a milky substance that can cause nasty blisters if it comes into contact with skin on a sunny day, so do be careful around it. Otherwise, they are star plants, valued for their foliage as well as their refined flowers and coloured bracts.

E. polychroma, which forms a dome of stems with flat, greeny-yellow flower bracts, takes over for weeks from the daffodils in spring.

E. shillingii is strong, yellowish and good in late summer.

E. sikkimensis grows tall, has fabulous ruby stems in spring and tinted, whiteveined leaves. It looks great at different times with, variously, the pheasant tail grass Stipa arundinacea, the poker Kniphofia 'Green Jade', and the pineapple lily, Eucomis bicolor.

Euphorbia griffithii 'Fireglow' has vivid, reddish April and May flowers that look great with some unnamed reddish-magenta lily-flowered tulips here at the moment. It also has good foliage that lasts well into autumn.

The variety 'Dixter' is a dusty brick red and though very famous by association with the late great gardener Christopher Lloyd, is not as good, in my opinion.

DIARY Saturday 6 May, 10am-4pm: Discover the famous bluebell woods at Lissadell in Co Sligo with Teagasc forestry advisor Steven Meyen. A conducted group walk among the champion trees. Cost 50 with homemade lunch.

Booking 071-9163150; info@lissadellhouse. com Sunday 7 May, 10.30am-5pm: Rare & Special Plant Fair at Farmleigh, Castleknock, Phoenix Park. Admission free.

Until 15 October: Garden Festival at Chaumont sur Loire, France (about 35 kms from Paris by train).

This year's design theme is Playing in the Garden or Jouer au Jardin.

www. chaumont-jardin. com