Tulips are here again!

These are the first tulip flowers that are presently growing in our garden this spring time 2010. I can't wait to see more tulips in a couple of weeks. I am feeling that I am also in Keukenhof garden in Holland.

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Monocots
Order: Liliales
Family: Liliaceae
Subfamily: Lilioideae
Genus: Tulipa

A tulip is a bulbous plant in the genus Tulipa, comprising 109 species with showy flowers, in the family Liliaceae. The species native range includes southern Europe, north Africa, and Asia from Anatolia and Iran in the west to northeast of China. The centre of diversity of the genus is in the Pamir and Hindu Kush mountains and the steppes of Kazakhstan. A number of species and many hybrid cultivars are grown in gardens, used as pot plants or as fresh cut flowers. Most cultivars of tulip are derived from Tulipa gesneriana. wikipedia.