Tulips or Tulipa
Each Fall, when the time for spring bulb planting comes around, the age long question of to plant tulips? or not to plant tulips? careens around in my head. In my rational mind, I’m thinking, ” fat, well feed, chipmunks” and “they’re not likely to come back next year,” but then I get sucked into the extensive range of bright colors and beautiful varieties, and I convince myself that it will be worth it next spring, if only, for the joy of seeing a few of those bright colors popping up among the dreary, muddy landscape.
It took me a while (years) to narrow down the best tulip planting area in my garden, and eventually realized that the only successful tulip planting space was in the flower bed directly in front of the house, right outside the kitchen window. The other areas in the garden were just to wet. Tulips like dry sandy soil, and living halfway up a north-facing hill in Vermont is not the way to go for successful tulip production. That being said, this past spring has been the best tulip growing Spring I have had, so far. Something about last Summer and Fall’s unusually dry conditions and a slightly milder Winter has made this Spring spectacularly Tulip-full – even bulbs that I had given up for as lost have been surfacing and blooming.
The Ephemeral Bee 