Category Archives: Spring Flowering Bulbs

April 29, 2018 · 3:22 pm

RAIN, BLESSED RAIN

Most of the country has experienced

What seems to be the longest winter

In recent memory.

Our winter has been

In and out.

Bitter cold days

Sprinkled into sunny winter glory.

But it simply has not rained.

Fires 100 miles to our west

Attest to our dry fall and winter.

Thankfully it starting raining on a recent Friday night

And continued through Saturday.

Bringing hope to my garden

With each drop.

The Japanese Maple trees

Are sighing with relief.

They leafed out on schedule

Only to be frozen a couple of times.

Creating the saddest looking tree

I’ve seen in a long time.

Now, with this moisture

They have begun the process of

Putting on new leaves.

And things are budding out.

Iris

Allium

Peonies

With their attending ants.

And those stunning Japanese Tree Peonies.

They don’t last long

A few days of bloom and they are gone.

Yet, they are so worth growing.

With these buds

Comes hope

And so it is with gardeners.

Whose spirits have frozen

And thawed

And frozen

And thawed

More times than we can count.

But with the rain comes

Hope.

And gardeners thrive on

Hope.

Gail

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Filed under Allium, Bugs, Gardening, Gardening;Perennials, Iris, Japanese Tree Peony, Peonies, Perennials, spring, Spring Flowering Bulbs, Uncategorized

April 30, 2017 · 6:18 pm

THE GOOD NEWS EASTER EGG HUNT V.5

Family

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Kids

Gardens

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Friends

Community

These are the things I love

Once a year

They all roll into one afternoon.

Five years ago

My friend Kay and I hosted the first

Good News Easter Egg Hunt

For members of our church

Our neighbors

And extended families.

It quickly became a tradition.

Once again this year

Family…Kids…Gardens…Friends and Community

Came together on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

The crafts this year

Were musical instruments.

Which brings me to my friend Eddie Lou.

It’s always handy to have a music teacher

At your side.

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And that’s where we’ve been.

Side by side for the last forty plus years.

Church choir.

Raising kids

And now grand motherhood.

So it was natural

That the three of us would plan this year’s event.

Kay a master at the grand motherhood thing

And entertaining children.

Eddie Lou & Kay

Eddie Lou using her well honed teaching skills

To help children create

Rain sticks

And Drums

And Shakers

And Tambourines

More details were worked out by

Kara, Abbey and Tashana.

While Andrew and Katie provided

Bags of candy for all the kids.

Megan filled 700 Easter eggs,

And Monica supplied her famous lemon cookies

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The Ladybug release has become the highlight of the afternoon.

With kids not just expecting

To have bugs crawling up their arms.

They actually look forward to it.

Needless to say

It takes a village

A community

To create memories

To nurture

To simply share

In the joys

Of Life!

Gail

Thank you Beth Young and Jennifer Cole for the use of your marvelous pictures.

white iris

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Filed under Butterflies, Children in the Garden, Easter Baskets, Easter Egg Hunt, Garden House, Gardening Friends, Grandchildren, Gratitude, Lady Bugs, Spring Flowering Bulbs, tulips, Uncategorized

April 2, 2017 · 1:39 am

TULIP TIMING

Each fall when I order tulips

I check the calendar for the next spring.

I try to time them to bloom

For my annual Easter Egg Hunt.

That’s tricky

At best.

Easter can swing wildly over a month

From late March to late April.

Then you throw in the weather changes

And you’ve got a challenge.

I’ve been pretty lucky over the last few years

And somehow managed

To have some kind of blooming tulips.

Perfect for photo ops of all kinds.

Last fall knowing that Easter would be relatively late this spring

I ordered the latest blooming variety I could find.

French Blend from Colorblends.

I’ve been planting these in the front bed

For several years.

And they always bloom well behind

The varieties I plant in the back.

So this year I decided to plant both areas to French Blend.

The days we hit the high 80’s in February

Made me a little nervous

The leaves came popping out of the ground

At record speed.

Then March began to actually act like March

And the whole process stalled.

This week the yellow tulips in the back starting blooming

And now a few in the front are popping with color.

If these cloudy days hold on for another week.

It looks like I’ll have another Easter

With tulips.

Please know this has nothing to do with any special gardening skills.

It’s simply planning

Backed up with faith.

A pretty good combination.

Gail

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Filed under Easter Egg Hunt, spring, Spring Flowering Bulbs, tulips, Uncategorized

April 28, 2014 · 2:25 am

TULIP TIME

One of the last things I do at the end of the gardening season each fall

Is one of the first things to bloom come spring.

Tulips

It’s a gift we gardeners give ourselves.

Just at the end of the season

When we’re almost too tired to do another thing

And our knees really don’t want to bend down

Comes the time to plant Tulips.

Some years it’s hard to get it done.

But when spring comes I’m oh so grateful that I did.

Last fall I planted the path to the garden house

With my favorite varieties

Packed the trenches

Covered them with pansies

And let them sleep.

We had also added a new bed on the landing in the front.

Which was planted with a new variety

Of tulips called French blend.

They have proved to be perfect for this spot.

This variety bloomed a little later than those in the back.

Which has turned out to be a good thing.

You see this is a very sunny place.

Surrounded by bricks

Without a drip line.

So the only thing I know to plant there for summer is periwinkles.

But since periwinkles don’t like cold wet weather

You have to wait till May to plant them.

So having a tulip that is still blooming

This last weekend in April works well.

They’ll last a few more days

Then it will be time to pull them up

And plant again.

The cycle goes on.

Gail

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Filed under spring, Spring Flowering Bulbs, tulips, Uncategorized

Tagged as Spring Flowering Bulbs, Tulips

April 21, 2014 · 1:31 am

EASTER – CHILDREN – GARDENS

Sometimes holding an annual event

Can be well…dicey. Expectations increase.

People can get tired of the same thing.

The odds for good weather decrease.

Not so if children are involved

And Easter eggs filled with candy.

So, yesterday we hosted the 3rd

I’d say it’s safe to say Annual 1st Presbyterian Church Easter Egg.

Each year Kay, master of children’s Christian education

Mixes things up a bit.

And this year we decided to invite the families

Of our neighboring church St. Matthews Episcopal.

We have been lucky with the weather all these years.

And this year was no exception.

It was a glorious afternoon.

And to top it off The Redbud trees were still in full bloom

Providing a marvelous backdrop for

The blanket of tulips leading up to the garden house.

Now you realize this is just luck.

No gardener has any say about when things bloom in the spring.

And if you try to plan it – it simply will not happen.

So you might as well just give it up

And hope for the best.

This is an attitude I’ve had to learn.

Fortunately, I had an excellent teacher.

My mother was the most relaxed hostess I’ve ever known.

Oh she would get “flustered” as she would say.

But she learned during the wild ride of her life.

To relax and enjoy it.

So yesterday as 50 or 60 children

(We don’t really know how many came.)

Were running through the garden.

Releasing lady bugs

Listening to the resurrection story

Exploring the compost pile

Trying out the chimney of the outdoor fireplace

And gathering Easter Eggs

One child brought back a wonderful memory of my mother

And the grace that she showed so many people during her life.

It happened during a family Sunday School Class party

Of many of these very people.

It was in the late 1980’s and we decided to have the party

At my parent’s home in the city.

Big house – big yard – big draw.

Dozens of us showed up and swarmed the place.

At one point several young mothers were standing in the kitchen

Visiting with mother as Cristina, maybe 3 or so

Appeared with a bouquet of flowers for the hostess.

Freshly picked from her own flower beds.

Beth, her mother, turned ashen.

Mother bent down and thanked

And likely hugged Cristina.

She was thrilled with the gift.

So yesterday

When I noticed Kay’s granddaughter

Walking along the garden house path

Snapping off tulips

I smiled

Then laughed

What a gift this memory is.

Children and Gardens and God.

If you don’t have children to invite into your garden.

I hope you’ll find some

To teach about nature

And grace.

Happy Easter,

Gail

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Filed under Easter Baskets, Easter Egg Hunt, Garden House, Gardening Friends, Redbud Trees, spring, Spring Flowering Bulbs, tulips

Tagged as Children and Gardens, Easter Egg Hunt, Lady Bugs, Redbud Trees, Tulips

April 14, 2014 · 12:18 am

DISSONANT HARMONY

Sometimes I forget

Just how much

Music and gardens have in common.

Until this morning.

Before I left for church I reminded myself

When I get home to cut that single RED tulip

Blooming wildly in the midst

Of all those perfect pastel beauties.

It has somehow survived the year

And returned to bloom again.

But it doesn’t fit into this year’s color scheme

So…off with it’s head.

I thought.

It’s probably the only tulip

That’s ever been saved from cutting

By the tenor section!

Here’s how.

We were practicing for our annual

“Palms to Passion” service this morning.

Doing a simple yet glorious version of

“God So Loved the World”

We were sounding pretty good

Except for one measure when those aforementioned tenors

Were moving from note to note ahead of us

The melody loving soprano section.

The tenors should know this by now.

I thought.

Then I took a moment

And actually looked at the music.

They were singing it correctly.

Our parts were not the same.

We, the sopranos, were the dissonant ones.

Intended to be different from one another.

Imagine that…

Dissonant harmony in a church choir.

For some reason

This moment really resonated with me

And I began thinking that

Music is like a garden

Which is like life.

Sometimes it’s the very things that sound off tune

That resolve into true beauty.

It’s the differences that make us richer

And deeper.

Sameness is comfortable

Appealing initially.

But it is in the bounty of difference

That we experience the true nature

Of all that God created.

Music and gardens.

Some of Her best work!

Gail

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Filed under Gratitude, Redbud Trees, spring, Spring Flowering Bulbs, tulips

Tagged as Difference, Music, Palm Sunday, Redbud Trees, Tulips

May 19, 2013 · 1:33 pm

50 SHADES OF……PURPLE!

It is amazing to me

How each spring

The same plants emerge from their winter’s sleep

To create my garden

And yet

Each spring

I am surprised by what happens

In my own backyard.

This year

This “I can’t believe how late spring is” year

I am struck by the seemingly endless shades

Of purple.

I know that I have 2 new shades

Of purple Iris.

Plus the standard deep purple

And it seems the Columbine

Has a trifecta of purple.

Then there is my mystery wild Orchid

And the last of the Violas

Before the heat of summer knocks them out

There’s a rich purple in this year’s

Mixed Lettuce greens.

And a new purple in the Alliums

Planted last fall

After seeing Kristina’s great Allium seed pods.

I also have a new lilac bush

Small…but covered with blooms.

Add to them the purple Rose I planted last year

Could it be

That purple is the “new pink”

Of my early spring garden?

Not for long

Peonies and Roses can’t be far behind!

Enjoy the week,

Gail

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Filed under Allium, Columbine, Gardening, Gardening;Perennials, Iris, Lettuce, Peonies, Perennials, roses, Spring Flowering Bulbs, Uncategorized, Viola, Violets

May 5, 2013 · 7:03 pm

MEGAN

A couple of decades ago my job was designing, installing and maintaining perennial flower garden

All around town.

It was fun and very hard work.

During the summer maintenance season

I would hire daughters of friends to help me.

Megan, Cristina and Ashley outlasted them all.

For instance Megan’s sister Katie told me at the end of the first…and only summer for her.

“This has been fun, but I don’t ever want to do this again.”

But it was Megan who just kept coming back.

She worked from Jr. High through High School.

Then in college she would come back each fall to help me plant bulbs.

Even post college she was there for me digging trenches

And burying bulbs.

We’ve had great conversations

That have matured with each year.

We often talked about the garden party I would have for her.

When she married.

Last fall when Megan came for our bulb planting ritual

There was only one subject of conversation

So it was no surprise that at Christmas Megan and JP were engaged.

After years of dreaming about Megan’s wedding and parties

The planning began.

What’s that saying about making plans.

“If you want to make God laugh…tell him your plans.”

Well God must have doubled over with laughter at this one.

Because JP is in the Navy

Scheduling of everything was on Navy time.

In this instance that means fast.

A mid-April wedding was planned not at home

But in Corpus Christi where JP was stationed.

No problem…if there’s anything Megan loves as much as JP and gardens

Its’ the beach

But there was only time and space for family and a few close friends.

No problem…we’ll have a reception here

In my garden

Just like we planned

Sometime in Mid-May when all is happily blooming!

Well…maybe not.

JP and Megan have to be in their new destination by May 6th.

OK we’re flexible

May 2nd it will be.

A simple ice cream social with wedding cakes

Friends and family in attendance for the perfect send off.

Well…maybe not.

The morning of May 2nd brought

Sleet

Rain

Clouds

30 mile an hour north winds

With gusts to 40

OK God I get the idea.

Thankfully for once I half way believed

Our over zealous weather forecaster

And cut every tulip that was blooming

The Saturday before the party.

They spent the week in the safety of my spare refrigerator.

And the day before the party Kay – Megan’s mother suggested

“We might want to go ahead and cut whatever else we need.”

So we cut buckets of Boxwood and Viburnum

And even cut a few Lilacs from Kelly’s yard.

We simply brought the garden indoors.

Now there’s no doubt that I was disappointed

That I couldn’t give Megan the garden party of her dreams.

But here’s the thing.

When Thursday night came.

Megan and JP were beaming

Friends who have watched her grow up

Family who loved her from the moment they knew she was coming into this world.

All of us were there

Eating gelato and wedding cake.

And sending Megan & JP out into the world

Knowing that they are deeply loved.

That they are rooted and grounded in this place with these people.

As my sister Pat said at Elliott & Kristina’s wedding.

“We have loved giving you roots and wings

It is the greatest satisfaction of our lives.

Know that we celebrate with you as you join hands,

Spread your wings and fly.”

Here’s to a happy life Megan

And gardening all over the world.

All my love,

Gail

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Filed under Bridal Showers, Flower Arrangements, Garden House, Gardening, Gardening Friends, Gardening;Perennials, Perennials, spring, Spring Flowering Bulbs, tulips, Wedding Flowers

April 22, 2013 · 2:23 am

TULIP TIMING

For years I’ve planted tulips along the path to my garden house.

I’ve chosen to cluster them all there

Rather than dotting them around the garden

The effect is quite good.

Even dramatic in a good year.

I’ve also hosted many spring parties in my garden

But I’ve never gotten the two events coordinated.

Until this year.

Back in January we began planning a bridal shower for my friend Gay’s daughter.

The best day was last Saturday, April 20th.

Gay asked if my tulips would still be blooming.

No chance I replied.

I’ve never known tulips to last that long.

Now this is the latest and coolest spring I can remember.

In fact, there is yet another freeze predicted for next week.

So the tulips began to bloom.

And bloom and bloom.

They have lived through no less than 4 overnight freezes

Including one complete with ICE!

They’ve just kept on keeping on.

Flushed with sunlight

And backed with still blooming Redbud trees.

Ali and Friends

Yesterday they really strutted their stuff.

Which only means one thing.

I want to plant more next year!

Gail

PS: Hopefully after the final “last freeze” next week we’ll get to really dig in and start gardening!

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Filed under Bridal Showers, Garden House, Redbud Trees, spring, Spring Flowering Bulbs, Timing, tulips, Uncategorized

April 15, 2013 · 1:00 am

“PERFECT” GARDENING DAYS

I’ve never been a fan of the word perfect.

After all I grew up on a farm

Where nothing is ever perfect.

I did marry an attorney

Whose job it is to be perfect

God has such a sense of humor!

I try not to use that word.

But there are times when it truly does apply.

This weekend turned out to be full of “perfect” gardening days.

Which is surprising since last Wednesday we had an ice storm

Featuring frozen Tulips

And Redbud trees.

So when yesterday dawned cool and cloudy

I was ready to garden.

As you may recall last fall we opened a new client choice food pantry

For hungry people in this part of the state.

We serve over 800 individuals and families each month.

And we are working hard to provide them with healthy food choices.

So naturally we decided we’d grow some of that food.

A generous soul named Michael has worked tirelessly to organize this project.

A month ago 10 raised beds were built.

And yesterday morning we planted them.

With plants and seeds donated from Atwoods.

And the help of volunteers from Chisholm Schools.

In 3 hours we planted 10 raised beds.

Stuffed them full of early season veggies and greens.

What a gift!

The day continued with…what else…a nap!

Nothing better than napping on a sunny spring afternoon.

Then I began to work on the roses that I have so ignored all spring.

Each rose got a good drink of water laced with 1/4 cup of Epsom salts.

They gulped it right up.

Next I finally got around to cutting away the dead

And tying New Dawn to the fence

It gets a bit unruly from time to time.

A couple of quick flower arrangement for Sunday’s church services

And the day was done.

This afternoon was less focused.

Just piddling around

Trimmed the hedges outside the kitchen window

Pulled more of that @#$#@ poa anna grass

Before it goes to seed.

Planted a flat of alyssum

The one spring annual that can withstand

Next week’s promised last freeze

Then spent a few minutes sitting among the tulips

They are like children.

When you bend down to their height

You enjoy them so much more.

An unexpected clap of thunder

Brought a soft brief spring shower.

God watered everything in.

It was a “perfect” gardening weekend!

Gail

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Filed under Alyssum, Bouquets, Dead Heading, Flower Arrangements, Gardening, Hunger, Redbud Trees, roses, Seeds, spring, Spring Flowering Bulbs, tulips, Uncategorized, Vegetables

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