Tag: tulips

Adieu to the Tulips

Don’t get me wrong – I’ve loved having the Tulips in my garden. They are beautiful and they’ve added glorious colour to the spring garden, but were they “worth it”?

According to Wikipedia, During the Ottoman Empire, the tulip became very popular in Ottoman territories and was seen as a symbol of abundance and indulgence – I understand why.

The bulbs are fairly expensive, certainly the ones I bought were. The standard tulips were quite reasonable but were sold out so quickly that I only managed to get my hands on a few – and only red were left when I bought. As Tulips are my daughters favourite flowers, I had promised her “lots of tulips”, so when the exotic tulips became available, I indulged and bought a lot of them. They were pricey considering that they are only worth keeping for one season, or so the bulb-people tell you. But order them I did and I lovingly planted all the bulbs and waited in anticipation for a marvellous show of tulips.

Was it marvellous? Well … it certainly was lovely. It was a fun experiment. It was great being able to cut tulips and bring them into the house (and my cut tulips lasted a whole lot longer in the vase than the ones from Woolies do). But was it “show-stoppingly marvellous”? I would have to say no. The exotic tulips all seemed to bloom at different times so I never had a single “wow” moment in the bed they were planted in. We had plenty of “thats very pretty” moments, but never a “Wow, that is a great show of Tulips” moment. And once the blooms are spent you are left with the collapsing greenery … and no chance of another bloom (indulgence!).

The standard red tulips are blooming now and they look lovely. I don’t think the the way I planted them induces a “Wow” moment when you see them, but we are enjoying them for now.

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My final verdict: If (and its a rather big if) I buy tulips again, I will plant them in pots which I can move around or in an area that isn’t that obvious (but then whats the point really?). For the amount of time they took to grow and flower (4-5 months growing time for 2 to 3 weeks of flowers), that’s just not worth it in my book. I think I can do a lot better by choosing any number of the perennials on my “I want these” list, which will give me pleasure for a lot longer than three weeks. It’s not that I expect a plant to flower continuously, far from it, but I don’t see the point of devoting an entire flower bed to six months of growth for a fleeting showing by the tulips, only to trash them afterwards. I just don’t have that much space in my garden (or cash in my bank account :)).

So much like one says to friends you know you won’t be seeing again for a while, I bid Adieu to the Tulips … till we meet again!

In Memory of the Tulips …

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Perhaps I will look back on this post next year and change my mind and do it all over again … time will tell.

Happy Gardening
xxx

Tags bulbs, spring bulbs, tulips

Christine's garden Design Gardening Home page features Perenniels

All about Change – the Azalea bed, then and now

Post author By Christine
Post date September 4, 2011
39 Comments on All about Change – the Azalea bed, then and now

If nothing ever changed, there’d be no butterflies. ~ Author Unknown

I’ve long hung on to the overgrown trees I inherited in my garden, believing that excessive cutting back or pruning would change things radically. I was wary of changing things too much. Mostly, I was wary of losing my fiercely guarded privacy. You see, I’m a very private person, reclusive some will tell you. And mostly, I liked it that way.

And then I started this blog, and suddenly, things were a bit less private. Strangers were “looking” over my walls and into my garden. It actually felt quite nice. Some of those strangers have become gardening buddies and I look forward to their virtual visits to my garden and mine to theirs. Then it dawned on me … perhaps cutting back a tree or two to let in some more light was not such a bad thing after all. Maybe just prune back a little … and so we did. And guess what? Nothing terrible happened. In fact, the sun peeped through and it made both the plants and me smile a bit. Perhaps time to prune back a bit more? Let more light in? Why not?

Get the tree feller in, see what he says. He said two trees HAD to go or they would cause problems with the foundations of my house within the next two years. Oh dear … more loss of privacy? He chopped them down. Then he cut back the others. Hard. Quite a shock to my system. It’s taken quite a while for me to get used to all the light (and seeing some neighbour roofs). But I’m still here, nothing bad happened and … now I like it! I can see the mountain – I have a view! And I see the sun and the sun sees my plants and they seem to be smiling back with their lovely blooms.

Today I’d like to share with you the jungle I was hiding in and how I have transformed this area which I call the “Azalea Bed” over the last three years …

Before – no light, no sun, just overgrown trees

After – Now in September 2011

More “Before and Afters”

[one_half]Before – Dexter as a puppy[/one_half]

[one_half_last]The same area (and Dexter) today[/one_half_last]

[one_half]Another “before” with baby Dex[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Today Lilies & Azaleas grow here[/one_half_last]

My “brag book” – the way it looks today

(click to enlarge)
[one_half]The way it looks today[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Can you see the Mountain?[/one_half_last]

[one_third]Azaleas and Lilies[/one_third]

[one_third]Looking to the mountain[/one_third]

[one_third_last]Looking from the other view[/one_third_last]

The last photograph shows the bed from the other side (with the mountain behind me). There is of course still work to be done in the front of the bed and once the Tulips have died down in the bed opposite the Lilies & Azaleas I will be planting perennials in there (not doing the Tulips again next year).

I should probably have waited to show this when all the Lilies are blooming and when the Prunus is covered in blossoms … but I’ll just have to show you how it looks then again … it will be another whole new look. I can’t wait!

Happy Gardening
xxx

Tags azaleas, before and after, liliums, nandina, nandina pygmaea, trees, tulips

Christine's garden Gardening Home page features

Flowers for my Mom

As I was pottering around my garden today I had the sweetest childhood memory of being a very young child (must have been before school-going age), picking flowers and giving them to my Mom which always made her smile. And so it is today, my lovely, supportive Mom is probably my gardens’ biggest fan and often I catch myself thinking “Mami will love this!” when I spot a new flower in the garden or find a lovely plant at a nursery. A lot of what I plant is in anticipation of the joy I know it brings to her when she reads this blog, all the way in Germany!

So today’s floral show is just for you Mami! Thank you for all your love and support and mostly, thank you for being my Mom!