Long time - no see

Starting with tulips in September, then the Tree Peony in October along with Irises, Geums, Hemerocallis and Wisteria reaching into November spring changes into early summer and roses.  Need I say more!

                                                                                                                                               
My last post was about planting bulbs - I think mainly tulip bulbs.  Can I just say that those bulbs have long since flowered!!    Amazingly, as for so long nothing happened, and even when a few green tips start to appear through the ground they seem so small and few - where are those 50 bulbs I planted?   I despair thinking nothing will ever happen.  But gradually the the green tips multiply and the foliage fills out and develops until the bare soil is almost covered with green.  Eventually stems with buds rise up through the strong rosettes of foliage and I heave a sigh of relief after all that anxiety.   Perhaps there will be tulips after all.  And there are - just exactly what I had ordered - 100 'Temples Favourite'  standing up huge, orange and blowsy on their long stems.  But now that it is November they have long since gone and much of their foliage has died away too, and is fast being covered over with iris, day-lily, geum and other perennial foliage, so that there is practically no trace left of their flamboyance.  l do try to protect and prolong their fading foliage where I can as this is what feeds the bulbs encouraging them to flower the following year. 

Meanwhile this lush Tree Peony starts to flower, so tulips are soon forgotten in the face of this fleeting beauty.  It's quality rather than quantity in it's apricot short lived beauty.  And before we know it things are happening thick and fast in the spring garden.