Garden pr0n
I finally got my box o’ bulbs for the spring… woo hoo! I just had to rip it open right away, even though I knew all I’d see was a few bags full of oniony-lookin’ brown lumps.
I got two types of tulips, both of which I’ve grown before.
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El Nino has very long, graceful stems and purple-splashed foliage. The colors are almost fluorescent from afar, the perfect thing to warm an entryway on a slushy spring morning. Unfortunately they seem to be the kind of tulip that slowly dies out rather than naturalizing; my three produced only one the next year, and only single foliage leaves the years after that. Still, they’re so lovely I’ll just get some more. |
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I love how Daydream tulips change color as they age, from palest butter to nectarine. They multiply year by year, too, and so far the squirrels haven’t snacked on them… I just had to have 20 more.  |
I also got two varieties of dutch iris, a dark purple and a light periwinkle blue.
The idea was initially to plant myself a cutting garden at the Patch, so I wouldn’t feel bad taking blooms out of my perennial flower garden where they contribute such beauty to drab suburbia. But that idea lasted about as long as I didn’t have the bulbs in my hand.
Now I’m thinking that there’s no way I could stand to plant 30 tulips and 20 irises in someplace I couldn’t see them every time I looked out my window. Mmmmm, bright splashes of lavender and nectarine together while everything else is still grey and dead!
The problem is that I know that if they’re blooming in my “actual” garden, I’ll never pick them. Hence, no beautiful bouquets, and the need to spend lots of money on bouquets from Whole Foods and to buy even more bulbs again next year. But come to think of it, is that such a bad thing? And anyway, if I were to plant them at the Patch, I’d just have to dig them up again to make way for planting some vegetable or other… right?
Ach, dilemma.