I've got blooms! These poor little scilla have had buds for about a month - through 80 degree temps and through lows in the teens. And today they decided to just go ahead and open.
I have planted 25-50 bulbs each year for the past 4 years in various parts of the gardens. The first year they'll come up in small clumps, and then every year they just keep multiplying, until finally you have a carpet of little blue flowers in the spring. As you can see in this photo, there are still alot of plants that haven't even budded yet, so I should have these blooming for quite awhile.
This is a photo Mark took 3 years ago when we were working on a CD of all my blooms (fun project that helped me appreciate his love of photography and helped him appreciate my gardening obsession). I just love this little spring bloomer.
Here's another form of spring/summer vegetation - at least if you live on our lake! We have reedy areas across the lake and down the channel from us, and every once in awhile a piece will break off and go floating around the lake in search of a new home. We have a pretty good wind today, and this morning this "island" floated into our neighbor's dock. When the wind shifts to another direction, they'll push it out to sea, and it will eventually end up back from whence it came.
Now this I am almost embarrassed to show you - in fact I seriously considered NOT showing it, but the point of my blog is to remember what happens from year to year, so...These are always my first tulips to bloom, and this year they have been bothered by the rabbits and were hit hard when we had the low temps and no snow cover. So, the foliage is raggedy and the flowers/buds are puny. Added to that, I moved a bunch of stuff in this area last fall and rearranged most of the bulbs. I think this will not be a good year for these guys.
Below is a photo from 2 years ago - they aren't open yet, but you can see that the color is certainly more vibrant, good leaves, etc. Oh, well - let's just hope I'll have other tulips this year that will be gorgeous!
This morning I discovered how to circumvent the late start to the Minnesota growing season. I was driving home and saw a beautiful garden full of blooming tulips at an office complex. Wow! At the next garden in the same complex, I saw 2 vans with guys unloading dozens of potted tulips in various stages of growth and bloom. So I think the answer is to have MONEY! When I win the lottery, I'll just make a phone call: "hello, ms florist, i'd like 2 gardens worth of tulips delivered, please. oh, wait - better make it 3." (guess I'd better start actually buying lottery tickets too, if this is my plan!)
