My Tulip Time

My driveway bunnies now have flowers all their own. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

My Tulip Time

When I first started planting tulips several decades ago, I had the worst luck. If it wasn’t some hungry little mouse eating the bulbs, a family relative going through a vegan stage picking and frying them. Yes, tulips are edible although I can’t remember them to describe the taste.

When I moved to the house on my one acre Missouri limestone hill, I swore off tulips, opting to plant daffodils and related natives for spring color.

Last fall, however, my gardening buddy gifted me with a huge box of discounted bulbs including tulips. It was such a lovely, exciting gift that I got to planting them. Also helped that the first hard frost was in the forecast for about a week later.

Winter has been colder than usual but it’s still a bit of a gamble how many bulbs will make it without becoming food for mice and squirrels.

This spring, in addition to the regular spring colors of pink Eastern Redbuds, vanilla white Dogwoods, blue Grape Hyacinths and flowering vinca, I now have a lovely pop of red, yellow and purple color courtesy of these gift tulip bulbs.

Would you like to see them?

This is the flower bed across the driveway from my concrete bunnies. I see this flower bed as I walk up the driveway to my garbage can and down the road to my mail box.

A sprinkling of tulips greet me at the top of the driveway. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

As I return from my mailbox, I detour to a path that takes me to one of my memorial seating areas.

This one is for my Uncle Tony, who lived in Louisiana. The little pop of red tulips brightens up this corner while other summer-blooming plants get their start.

A group of tulips in my Uncle Tony’s memorial bench area. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Another way to approach my house is through this series of round concrete steps leading to, and from, the front door.

Sometimes I walk down the road and return to my garden through these steps so I lined them with a little pop of tulips as well. Frankly I don’t have large swaths of available soil to plant so I sneak tulip bundles in where I can and still protect them.

Tulips welcome visitors walking down my front door path. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Rainy days mean time spent in reading nooks through my house so I added a little plop of tulips where I could enjoy them from a window seat. This view out one of my windows made me think I really should add one of my Pink Tullp Quilts on my bed, then I thought no, I have enough tulips around me as it is.

A few tulips brighten up the southern flower beds. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

This little clay pidgeon has been with me for more than 20 years so I gave her a little embellishment by planting orange tulips around the path that leads to her sitting spot.

My clay pidgeon gets company with orange tulips. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Back to the other side of the garden, where I am walking back to the house from Uncle Tony’s memorial bench.

The path leads by my driveway retaining wall, which now has little bouquets of blooming tulips. You can see staining from how the water perculates through the wall, giving it a nice aged look.

This will be the third year for the retaining wall plantings and I am looking forward to seeing how it grows.

Small bunches of tulips brighten up my retaining wall gardens. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

As I walk down the path to the back of my house, I added another small bundle of tulips at the bottom. Once they stop blooming, other plants will take over and hopefully give them some cover so they will return next year.

A few tulips welcome you to this garden path. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Thanks to my gardening friend Tom for this lovely gift of spring color, I hope it’s a gift that keeps on giving!

Charlotte