Tulips

On 17th November last year I blogged...

"Looking forward to Spring already
The weather has turned very cold this week. Wish I could hibernate for a couple of months now and miss Christmas and the cold weather and wake up in Spring. I have planted over 300 bulbs during the last few weeks, I bought a few extra tulips today and planted them - that makes 150 tulips in various varieties"
 
Now it is April and those bulbs are living up to my hopes for them.

A patch of tulips in front of my summer-house today

The crocus have finished their flowering and the daffodils and hyacinths are fading fast but the tulips are just coming into their full beauty and providing my own personal Tulip Festival.
 
The town of Spalding in Lincolnshire is famous for the annual Tulip Festival early in May. With the unusually warm weather we have experienced since the end of March I feel sure my tulips will be over by then.
 



Each day more begin to show their colour while others open fully. The lovely weather has ensured that I can fully enjoy them, no beating rain or gale force winds to damage them and of course I have also been able to spend a lot of time in the garden admiring them.
 

I have never grown double tulips before, they don't really look like tulips but the nearly white ones I have tried this year do look very beautiful, almost like water lilies.

I didn't stop with the borders in my garden, I also planted some bulbs in a couple of tubs on the drive, during the summer they had bedding plants in them and I 'recycled' the potting compost, these add a lovely bright splash of colour when I come home and park in front of them.
 
I still have more varieties in tight bud in areas that I planted later or that are a little more shady so my own small Tulip Festival will last a while longer yet, I hope the weather doesn't change so I can enjoy it to the full.
 
If you want to beat the Winter Blues and have something wonderful to look forward to next year make a note somewhere to buy bulbs and make sure you plant them, all too often I have found bulbs still in bags the following year but I diligently planted all bulbs as I purchased them and then bought more last year.
 
The show they give is quite spectacular and worth every penny spent on them. I hope you enjoyed this brief glimpse of some of my tulips if you haven't any of your own.