Tulips

 

I learn something new almost all the time.

My daffodils have bloomed and are now decaying. I did not know they did that.

Well, obviously I knew they wouldn’t live forever. I just thought they would continue to bloom all summer – not so. Now, I have ratty looking daffodil plants amongst the newly blooming tulips.

Even though the Tulip’s green shoots came up long before the daffodils, the actual buds and flowers wait until it’s really warm before they open up. They just started blooming this weekend.

Tulip flowers also close up at night to protect themselves from the cool and open back up during the day which is kind of neat.

I had expected to have pots full of daffodils and tulips blooming concurrently – but that’s not the case.

Plus, I’ve found out that the tulips might only bloom this year. While all bulb plants need cold winters to activate the bulbs – apparently tulips need serious cold and longer winters.

The winters in piedmont / coastal plain NC may not be quite cold enough or long enough for them. (I live just upstream from the ‘fall line’ between the piedmont and coastal plain.)

I recently found out that people dig up their tulip bulbs and put them in the freezer for the winter. Then, replant in the spring.

Well, I’m not gonna do that. Heck, the whole point was to plant bulbs and then forget about them and let them do their thing year after year.

I purposefully did not plant day lilies since they seem to be everywhere in NC. I wanted something different.

But guess what? There’s a reason day lilies are ubiquitous. They bloom year after year, propagate, have varied colors and are well suited to NC.

I think I’m going to have to plant a few in each pot for variety and color.