Bulbs, Bulbs! It's Time to Plan

Today's Butterfly:
Tiger Swallowtail on Lantana montevidensis

Janie sent me a picture of a tulip called 'China Town' in ruffled pink. We can't just plant tulip bulbs in the ground here and expect stems longer than 2 inches because of the lack of chill. We can make elaborate schemes for chilling bulbs in the fridge in the absence of fruit like apples and then planting them. My last attempt at tulips in pots was eaten by the new puppy just as they put on buds.


Tulips just peeking out of the soil that would have bloomed in the spring of 2009 if Buffy hadn't eaten them.

Last winter I forced Amaryllis instead of Tulips.
Amaryllis are much more expensive, but one bulb makes a big show.



It's time to plan, order and remember where the bulbs are stored until time to plant in the fall.

I review past years' spring bloom pics to see what performed well and where there are spaces without bulbs. Sometimes I lift some existing bulbs and relocate them either in the fall if I know exactly where they are or when they show green in the spring if I'm not sure.

The catalog photos are very tempting, but experience shows that the best bulbs for pretty shows in the spring are generally the tried and proven. They are generally cheaper than new cultivars, another consideration.

Esperanza or Tecoma Stans?

Whichever name you know it by, it is a beautiful late summer bloomer despite drought.

It plays well with Pride of Barbados, bringing out the yellow in the blossoms. P of B is setting seeds and I haven't clipped them off. Only one of the seeds I set early in the spring produced a plant. It has struggled in the drought.

Other tropicals that have survived drought and bloomed are Shrimp Plant and Curcuma. No Cannas have bloomed and Lantana has very small blossoms.

After a While by Virginia Shoffstall

After a while you learn the subtle difference

Between holding a hand and sharing a life

And you learn that love doesn't mean possession

And company doesn't mean security

And loneliness is universal.

And you learn that kisses aren't contracts

And presents aren't promises

And you begin to accept your defeats

With your head up and your eyes open

With the grace of a woman, not the grief of a child.

And you learn to build your hope on today

As the future has a way of falling apart in mid-flight

Because tomorrow's ground can be too uncertain for plans

Yet, each step taken in a new direction creates a path

Toward the promise of a brighter dawn.

And you learn that even sunshine burns

If you get too much

So you plant your own garden and nourish your own soul

Instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.

And you learn that love,

True love,

Always has joys and sorrows

Seems ever present, yet is never quite the same

Becoming more than love and less than love

So difficult to define.

And you learn that through it all

You really can endure

That you really are strong

That you do have value

And you learn and grow

With every goodbye

You learn. -- Virginia Shoffstall

 
I found a yellowed clipping in some papers with this clipping from an 'Ann Landers' column. She said it was one of the most requested poems of all time.