Last spring I was lucky enough to visit the Keukenhof at Lisse on the outskirts of Amsterdam. This display garden, which is conveniently near the airport, only opens in spring and it showcases the entire range of spring bulbs produced in Holland. This year it will dazzle an international audience until May 18, with a special Flower Parade on April 26.

Keukenhof is famous for its sweeping beds of tulip varieties that swirl throughout the park, often round a river of miniature blue bulbs.

These vivid displays can be a little too dazzling for some. But there are quieter, subtler corners too with pale-pink blossom overhanging deep-pink tulips.

There are also formal vistas with box topiary and fountains that are elegant enough to grace Versailles.

People come for an entertaining day out, armed with cameras, and it is said to be the most photographed place in the world. The whole display is immaculately kept and the day uplifting. There is a feeling of joie de vivre about this spring extravaganza that goes beyond gardening.

Tulips are the stars at Keukenhof because there are so many types in so many colours. Holland majors in them, producing more than three billion bulbs on 20,000 acres. Many more are grown for the cut flower market too. I think they are under used in British gardens, even though they are easy and inexpensive if bought from the right supplier.

Good tulips cost on average £15 per hundred from suppliers such as Peter Nyssen, and it is better to buy them in bulk. Then you can create large bold sweeps, perhaps using three varieties, to light up spring.

Most of us wouldn't want to emulate the parks and garden blast of colour at home however much we admire it in the park setting. So it is best to select a colour theme you like and then, within that scheme, select some different sorts that overlap to give a four-week succession. The most brightly coloured are the thick-petalled Triumph tulips which flower in the second half of April. They are the staple of any colour scheme and they also keep their shape well.

Combine Triumphs with a selection of May flowering tulip. These include the elegant, lily-flowered tulips with their outwardly splaying petals.

The single-late tulips have slender, goblet-shaped flowers. The double-late tulips, have globular flowers on fairly short stems. The ragged-edged fringed tulips and the green-tinted Viridiflora tulips, which can be perennial, can also be added.

The most exotic of all, the Parrots, have feathered, high-gloss petals and these are perfect in the ground, or in containers. Mixing lots of different shapes works well and the variation in height also gives the planting a natural style, avoiding the sheet bedding look.

When using dark tulips (like Queen of Night')it is essential to sprinkle through a lighter colour in order to show them off, otherwise they will be lost. It could be the white, lily-flowered White Triumphator' or Shirley', which has white background grained in purple. Lemon-yellow is also good against dark tulips and Purissima' opens white and turns lemon.

There are lots of blue-purple tulips too and these are stunning among pinks. Recreado', a purple single late, Negrita', a beetroot-purple Triumph, and the single-late blue-purple Blue Amiable' are all stunners with pink tulips like Pink Lady'.

Pink can range from warm peach to cool lilac and mixing several is fraught with problems, because so many jar against each other Breaking them up with a sprinkling of cream-white Triumph Ivory Dream' will diffuse any problems.

There are some versatile varieties like Princess Irene'. This orange Triumph has purple flaming at the base and in the picture it is teamed with chequered Snakeshead Fritillaries (Fritillaria meleagris) to great effect. I personally love using the rich reds and oranges of lily-flowered varieties like Red Shine',Ballerina' and the Queen of Sheba' woven among swirling brown carexes. This scheme shimmers so warmly in spring and is good against my grey stone walls.

My Holland trip also highlighted the importance of backdrop. Tulips grown in front of beech will only have old russet-brown leaves as a backdrop when they flower. Whereas as those lucky enough to be close to hornbeam have a spring-green curtain to set them off.Admittedly, hornbeam loses its leaves earlier, but who wants dry rustling beech leaves in autumn livery on a spring day anyway? So if your soil is normal, or damp, plant a hornbeam hedge (Carpinus betulus) instead. A blossom tree is also an asset and you could use a whole range of trees including the plummy Malus x purpurea Eleyi', Malus x Harry Baker' and Malus Royalty'.

So order your tulips as soon as you can, or buy them by early September. But always, always wait until after the end of October before you actually plant them. Mine often go in over Christmas. By then the bulbs are less likely to get a fungal disease called tulip blight. This grey mould (Botrytis cinerea) could spoil your personal spring extravaganza.

Peter Nyssen, call 0161 747 4000 or visit the website: www.peternyssen.com