Tulip Time!

Greetings! We've enjoyed some beautiful days here recently: last week was warm, with temperatures in the 70s, although this week has been chillier, and there's a chance of frost tonight. But I had a chance to work outside most days the week before, so I've been able to do a few things that I've been hoping to do, and the gardens are starting to look a bit more orderly.

But I won't show any projects, just some beautiful moments -- because the beginning of May is one of the most beautiful times of the year:

These lily-flowering tulips 'Purple Dream' have bloomed for two years now -- the other lily-flowering tulips I planted in Fall 2018 have not come back. I'll have to remember the name of this variety when I'm buying bulbs this fall. 

The tulip 'Carnival de Nice' tulips are flowering in all their stripey glory next to a 'Red Charm' peony that I moved here this spring. These are pretty fabulous.

These 'Tete a Tete' narcissus are pretty tiny -- they started blooming a couple of weeks ago when they were barely out of the ground, looking ridiculously stunted in growth. But they've continued to get taller over the past week, and now they're a normal 6-8 inches in height (still miniature, but very cute).

These pink Darwin hybrid tulips are leftover from last year -- only a few left this year -- but they still look beautiful with the grape hyacinths in my front border.

The line of six crabapples planted across our yard have never flowered so beautifully as they're doing this year -- the scent can be smelled from yards away! And the four L-shaped flower beds around the pond are better-maintained this year, after I cleared them of all but the boxwoods and the roses in the corners. The back right boxwood shrub (the small one) has finally been put back after I removed it a couple years ago to get the nasty runner grass infesting that bed under control, and it has some catching up to do with its brother boxwoods. I intend to plant annual dahlias and petunias in the four beds this year, as the perennial dianthus and garden phlox that I had here before didn't work too well, due to the invasive grass problem. I hope annuals will be easier to maintain in these beds.

I'm hoping there won't actually be real frost tonight, but I've brought in all the numerous potted shrubs and plants that I re-potted and took outside from the basement last week when it was so warm, and I'll cover some of the annual flowers I planted out with sheets, just to be safe.

I hope you have been enjoying some warm spring days in your gardens recently -- there is snow forecast in the eastern United States this weekend, so I don't feel so bad about our possible light frost... we'll see what happens.

Thanks for reading! -Beth