I ended yesterday's post with what does Tiny Tim have on us? His song about them is the only one that comes to mind and his little ukelele.
No ukelele for us! Shoe leather got us around the Hershey Gardens, never tiptoeing but getting down and dirty in the grass to take some lovely photos. I marveled at all 21,00 planted in the gardens strutting their perfectly bold colors to all who marvel at their tall, slender shapes. The blooms have three petals and three sepals, but since the sepals are almost the same size/shape as the petals, it all blends in with the tulips appearing to have sex petals to one bulb.
The riot of color was a feast for the eyes. I couldn’t get enough. The entire area was peaceful beyond words I can convey but trying. I can’t even imagine the beauty of Holland created by a flower native to Central Asia, but they did. Holland took tulips to their hearts and is still considered the powerhouse-producing nation of tulips, bar none. Of course, the national flower of the Netherlands is the tulip, but there is one other nation that considers the tulip their national flower, too: Iran.
They say tulips are easy to grow, but I bet to differ. Maybe some places, indeed not my yard. Oh, sure, years ago, I planted a slew of purple ones that would line the front garden. They were stunning for a few years. But then, less and less would bloom each year. When I asked a local horticulturist about my bulbs no longer coming up/blooming, he said I did not plant the bulbs deep enough. He suggested planting the bulbs 8”-12” deep. Squirrels and other diggers love the sweet taste of the bulbs as opposed to their spring counterparts, the daffodil, with their bitter-tasting bulbs, at least to the critters eating them. I never replanted them again and moved on to other perennials and plants.
The Hershey Gardens visit was the perfect place to enjoy the exquisite tulips and other budding blooms (trees) around the property. Hershey, PA, is only 100 miles North of us, but it shows that there is a definite difference in which planting zones we live in and the timeframe in which everything blooms. We got to repeat the tulip phase of the season. That was worth the "price" of admission.
Spring is still kicking it in the beauty and awe department! (I hope everyone's spring allergies are in check - our black car looks yellow every morning
bSoleille!
Terri