Thursday, March 3, 2011

Tulips on the Table

In all of the longing for Springtime and along with the outside work, we decided to rush things a bit last weekend.

Tulips on the Table
Wanting some flowers to grace the table,  we bought tulips--not a bundle of tulip blooms, but a container of forced tulip bulbs so that we can plant them and enjoy them in the gardens next Springtime.

I thought it was a really great idea because after the blooms are gone we don't just throw the stems away, no we have to do work and plant the bulbs and stems in the gardens--but hopefully they will bloom next year.

I say hopefully because we have a problem here with tulip bulbs.

Squirrels.

They seem to love tulip bulbs and so of the many hundreds we have planted, only a few remain.  The daffodils and the hyacinths are not apparently on the menu--but tulip bulbs seem to be a squirrel delicacy.

But no matter--we will continue to plant the bulbs for even a single season of enjoyment--because tulips are one of the classic Springtime flowers and these days they come in so many variations.

I remember when it they came in two colors red or yellow with one type of bloom. But now they appear in all of the colors of the rainbow--including green, and have multiple bloom styles from traditional, to double and parrot and who knows what else.

For now though--as our temperatures are dropping back into the low 40's, they provide that visual clue that says: don't despair, Springtime is coming,

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