The last tulips

At the weekend we dead-headed the tulips in the garden and I rescued these three for a final chance to photograph them. They haven't gone over as elegantly as some do - the petals seem rather to have just collapsed. I like them nonetheless. The petals are the colour of red wine, with bright yellow edges - we weren't sure how they'd look in the garden at first, but in fact they were fine. It's odd how nature seems to succeed with such apparently unpromising colour combinations. And tulip leaves seem never to be anything other than simply beautiful, the better to complement the brilliance of the flowers.