Daffodils & Tulips & Our Red Umbrella…oh, My!

Ok…this blog will be a bit brief as I am taking advantage of the scrumptious sunshine that has finally arrived by spending a great deal of time relaxing beneath the red umbrella that graces our front patio…yep, I love to just sit and think or write letters to friends or read the next books for book group or chat with passers-by or listen to the birds or drink a glass of wine or...well, you get the picture, right? :-)  

OK…here’s the "daffodil and tulip" scoop.  

The rose flowerbed at the front of our home is truly a legacy to the Ross family (the only other family to have lived in our home since it was built in 1934).  It was in either 1935 or 1936 that the late Mrs. Ross planted the hardy bushes with their aromatic pink roses (I have yet to find out the name for the rose).  

In that brick-lined flowerbed those roses have bloomed for over 70 years!  At one point last year, Jack and I considered removing the rose bushes because of how large and somewhat unruly they become, but then our hearts won over and a late fall “haircut” (well, actually a crew-cut is more like it) was the course we chose.  However, since we cut the bushes back so drastically, our little flowerbed looked empty and lonely.  So as if I were staring at a blank canvas…

I began to imagine…. 

You see, one of the many things I love about this region is the abundance of all kinds of flowering bulbs that burst into bloom in the spring—so I decided it was time to try my “Texas-gardener-turned-Tonawanda-gardener” hand with them! 

Just as the frigid temperatures of winter began to take hold last year, I grabbed my newly acquired “bulb shovel” along with the bags of Narcissi King Alfred daffodils and Apeldoorn tulips I had purchased. 

I was on a “maiden” journey for me—to create a “sea of yellow daffodils and red tulips” that would bless us with their beauty in the spring. 

By the time I finished planting the one hundred or so bulbs, my fingers—despite the thick gloves I wore—and my nose were frozen…but my hopes and expectations were warmed as I imagined each bulb nestled in the ground, merely resting through the long winter months in preparation for their emergence in the spring. 

Well…those cold, dreary months of winter are slipping away (or at least we’re crossing our fingers that they are)…and the “blooms” of my labor are bringing us (and our neighbors) an awful lot of joy.  I will have to get back to you with pics of the tulips…they are still teasing us with their “yet-to-open” buds.

I can’t wait for fall (yikes….did I really just say that???) so that I can plant even more bulbs all about our yard and flower beds.  Guess that is one way to get through the winter, eh, knowing that come springtime, nature will grace us with her flowers.

 

                                                                       

 Life is good!   Yowza!