Spring Has Sprung !!! :)

[flowerbug]

@Carol Dee same here, what i have left are survivors, some still struggling along...

our soils are not the best for them so i took them all up, and raised the entire area and put down lighter/sandier soil and then replanted and ordered a few hundred more to fill in... since then that garden has faded and Mom wanted all of the ones left moved to another garden to combine them, but it will take a few more seasons for all that to get done. i plant beans over mine when they are about finished so at least the garden gets a second use.

http://www.anthive.com/project/tulips/

 

[Carol Dee]

@Carol Dee same here, what i have left are survivors, some still struggling along...

our soils are not the best for them so i took them all up, and raised the entire area and put down lighter/sandier soil and then replanted and ordered a few hundred more to fill in... since then that garden has faded and Mom wanted all of the ones left moved to another garden to combine them, but it will take a few more seasons for all that to get done. i plant beans over mine when they are about finished so at least the garden gets a second use.

http://www.anthive.com/project/tulips/

Great idea!

 

[Nyboy]

Growing tulips here are EZ and foolproof. but the deer see them as candy

 

[flowerbug]

Great idea!

it was if i'd made it better soil. i think many of the tulips just starved... it was very sandy and very poor topsoil even if i mixed in some composted cow manure that is a very weak fertilizer.

last year i finally got to those gardens in my worm bucket rotation and i could only do every other row under the bean plants. this year i'll get the rows i missed last year.

i'm going to need a lot of green manure if i want to improve it this year any more. i think we're mostly out of decayed wood chips that are easy to scrape up.

the bean plants that grow down lower along the fence get all the detritus and nutrient flows from higher up and have done well.

my longer range plan was to make the space bigger, but i ran out of topsoil/mix to haul in and i also ran out of $ as i'd quit work that spring. which is why there's a pile of extra pea gravel off to the side and an edge. some year[tm] i'm going to take that pea gravel out of there and the extra drain tubes i have in there that aren't needed and level it all down to where i won't have such edges. i'll have to screen most of the space for removing the pea gravel that's in there too...

it is so much easier to write about all this than to do it... lol

 

[thistlebloom]

Somebody may have already said this, but the way I understand it, unless you are growing the species tulips, they only bloom for a handful of years no matter how much attention you lavish on them.
Then you have greenery every year after, and no blooms.

 

[flowerbug]

Somebody may have already said this, but the way I understand it, unless you are growing the species tulips, they only bloom for a handful of years no matter how much attention you lavish on them.
Then you have greenery every year after, and no blooms.

not always, a few of the recent crosses are hardy enough, but of course stuff happens and conditions vary... once i have a few more blooming i'll be able to take stock of what's left. i'd guess that i have a few dozen of these sorts which have survived being ignored for 7yrs. then there are those we've had for 15-20yrs that survived the initial planting in heavy clay and in a low area and then have survived since i lifted the whole area and turned it to mostly sandy poor soil.

we also have some species tulips and they do seem to be doing ok with benign neglect... where i planted them was even worse than the others so if they're surviving it's purely because they're stubborn plants.

 

[baymule]

Somebody may have already said this, but the way I understand it, unless you are growing the species tulips, they only bloom for a handful of years no matter how much attention you lavish on them.
Then you have greenery every year after, and no blooms.

You just described a Texas tulip.

 

[thistlebloom]

You just described a Texas tulip.

bay, you could look into species tulips. There are some that do well in Texas, no chill required.

 

[baymule]

I'm pretty happy with my daffodils, narcissus, amaryllis and jonquils. One of these days I'm going to have some real flower beds to relocate them to and give them all the attention they deserve. then they'll probably quit on me...... lol

If something is too finicky I lose interest. It's gotta be tough to hang out here.

 

[Carol Dee]

More everyday
The 2 new YELLOW peony

The bleeding hearts

Contorted Hazelnut

Columbine (That did a no show last summer) are back

A Calla Lily DH potted up about 6 weeks ago!