The way to get rich is
to put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch that basket. (Attributed to Mark Twain, Andrew Carnegie, Warren
Buffet, and now the Common Household Mom.)
This is the Common Household approach to growing
tulips. If you want to see blog posts about actual hordes of beautiful tulips, go here and here. We
have One Lone Tulip.
Last year my husband planted a tulip bulb while it was
blooming, with three flowers, in the same spot where he planted his dead hydrangea twig.
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| April 2013 |
By a miracle, this bulb produced foliage this spring. Then it gathered all its strength and extracted
from its innards one lonely bud.
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| May 3rd. |
After all that exertion, its energy was spent. It was probably waiting for sunshine to warm
its leaves and do some photosynthesis stuff, but it will never get direct
sun. It is doomed to always be in the
shadow of the house.
Once I saw that bud, I knew I was its only hope against the
Attack Rabbits and Dastardly Deer. Every
time it stopped raining, I covered it with Liquid Fence. The Widow Douglas next door must have
wondered why the neighborhood was so stinky all the time.
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| May 4th. Defense plans made. Troops assembled. |
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| May 5th. It has a cool green stripe on one side. |
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| May 6th. Opening just a leetle bit more. |
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| May 10th. Made it! |
Triumph! After 4 long days, it finally bloomed.
Next year I have the prospect of having more tulips, because
I planted the one my friend gave me, but in a much sunnier place. Rabbits and deer, I’ll be buying more Liquid
Fence. You have been warned.
5 comments:
Oh, this post really made me laugh! And I had to read it aloud to Rob :-)
Have you guys ever given any thought to buying bulbs in the fall? Really, that is an impressive tulip though, because bulbs that have been forced (and bloom early to be sold in stores) are pretty much wiped out by that forcing. They usually don't bloom again for a couple of years!
Cassi, I usually don't seek out tulips to plant, because they are the favorite dessert for our local deer and/or rabbits. But when somebody gives me one, I figure I might as well plant it and see what happens.
I had never thought that forcing a bulb would mean that it would need to rest up for a few years. I am glad you told me this - now I won't expect too much from them.
Hooray! Bloom, baby, bloom!
There's something to be said for a single bud:
"One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach. One can collect only a few, and they are more beautiful if they are few. One moon shell is more impressive than three. There is only one moon in the sky. One double-sunrise is an event; six are a succession, like a week of schooldays. For it is only framed in space that beauty blooms. A tree has significance if one sees it against the empty face of sky. A note in music gains significance from the silences on either side. A candle flowers in the space of night. Even small and casual things take on significance if they are washed in space.” -Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Gotta love that strong surviving tulip!
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