tulips – Wellyssa's Womb

Giant aliums are the first burst color in the south Willow Garden

Spring is so glorious and messy, all at the same time. Everything is bursting from the ground at the same time, including the weeds.

My Mom made these for me. (She’s very skilled at ceramics.) I love them soo much.

This area was all grass. Hard to mow. I had the grass dug out and new top soil tilled into the clay. The clay is really heavy right here for some reason. So far, I have added iris and several other plants that I divided from other places in the garden: goldenrod, Jupiter’s beard, red day lily, sedum, salvia, shasta daisy, Turkish yellow poppy, and echinacea.

the story pole looks much happier with some color around it.

This year I decided to plant the vege garden with annuals instead of vegetables. I canned so much food last year, and worked soo hard in this garden, I decided to just do something beautiful and less labor intensive with the space this year.

the tulips brighten up this corner of the garden. After the tulips, the purple alium will come up, and then after that the tiger lililes. This little triangle looks spectacular for 6 solid months. Finally! A plan comes together. Where’s my cigar?

I just love how these orange and purple tulips look under the Linden tree.

In the background, the fruit trees are blooming. They missed the late spring frost. There WILL be fruit this year!

I love it when the spring bulbs finally start blooming. There’s this odd anticipation of the coming summer, mixed with a constant watching of the sky for the next spring storm.

The orange Chopin Crown Imperials came up WAY too early. But I am really happy with how strong and tall their first year’s growth is.

The new Service berry trees made it through their first winter. We’ll see if they grow here in the tree ring in the front lawn. We planted Catalpa here the first year we moved in. They were beautiful until they were slaughtered by a late freeze in the 7th year. We replaced the Catalpas with hot pink crab apples, which made it two years. The freeze/heat/freeze/heat cycles of the 2014 winter took them out.

White tulips under the new baby Serviceberry tree

So fall of 2015 we planted the two Service berries. They’re supposed to be indestructible, native to the high plains. Convince me. Already, in early April the tulip bed is filled with weeds. I sprayed this bed three times last year but the weeds just keep coming. It’s like a divine farce or something. This year’s strategy is vinegar. But I need to pull this first batch while the tulips are blooming. Sigh.

This is the second winter for these baby Carol Mackie Daphnes. I had 4 really nice shrubs here, which I planted in 2005. I got them a little too close to the Korean Lilacs and they were crowding each other, so I trimmed them back and moved them forward. They did not appreciate that. So these babies are their replacement. So far so good.

Carol Mackie Daphne in front of Korean Lilacs, in the front garden. East

The Daffodils have been up for a couple weeks, but I was surprised to see the tulips pop up so soon.

Spring mixed tulips in front of the old barn coupla. Baby likes them.

Into the Spring we go! Gird up your overalls, this journey is not for the faint of heart. Forward Ho!

Tag: tulips

Spring Miscellany 2018

Spring bulbs are up, fingers crossed