For a wedding gift to me, my husband bought me the Spring Bride Duet - a combination of Cosmopolitan Darwin Hybrid tulips and Stainless Daffodils. We planted them in the fall of 2014, and they have faithfully come up each year. I thought the daffodils and tulips were a good combination for us in case the deer ate the tulips, the daffodils would still be standing. Also, tulips can fade over time but daffodils multiply. So far, both have come up faithfully, and beautifully, each year, and the deer have left them alone. I would buy Darwin Hybrids again - they have really strong stems and huge flowers! The Cospmopolitans color changes over the time they are up. They come up a pale peach/pink, and then slowly shift to a brighter pinkish/red.
All summer the rock garden was full of Lily stalks that didn't bloom. I knew they were some kind of Lily due to the leaf structure. There must be 30-40 stalks. I've looked at them carefully numerous times, and last time I examined them I thought maybe Cala lilies, that would bloom later in the summer. Didn't happen. I saw some budding on them a few weeks ago, and then forgot about them being so busy the last few weeks. It's been raining all day here, and I saw that the bird feeder we had wedged between some of the rocks in the rock garden fell. It's not a permanent solution, and it fell once before. We're going to have cement it or use a base pole to secure it for Spring. I went out to pick it up, and was greeted by lots and lots of blooming Toad Lilies! What a surprise. These inherited gardens keep constantly surprising me. I've been through a full year's cycle now, and thought I'd seen everything. I don't remember these last year at this time. ...
It's amazing that your tulips continue to come up! I've heard that if you plant them deep enough, they are more likely to return. My hard clay soil keeps me from planting them as deep as they really want to be, so I treat them more like annuals.
ReplyDeleteRobin, I cross my fingers each spring, and so far so good. Hopefully the daffodils will take over if the tulips start to fade. We have hard clay too, and used one of the stand-up bulb planters for these. My husband was able to step on it and make a deep-enough hole, then I planted the bulbs.
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