Tulips and Daffodils

This tulip has been developing its bulb from deep down in my front lawn for the 18 + years we have lived here. Last year the bud was lopped off and this is the first year I have ever seen a bloom. It looks ridiculous, an oddball in the middle of the lawn. I will probably dig it up this year after the foliage dies back. I would never have planted this color in front of my magenta-trimmed house.

Here are a few more oddballs. This is the birch that the bunny uses for a nest. No sign of babies this year, but I have sprayed the area two or three times.

Some beauties from my tulip patch:

And now a few beauties from my Aunt's yard. These gorgeous tulips are a stand-out, framed against the fresh cut chips. I added time-released Osmocote fertilizer first, in case you were wondering--before spreading the new chips which can rob nitrogen from the soil--in this mum and sweet woodruff plot:

Below is a Mondial tulip--at the base of a large weeping cherry. The description of this tulip from Holland Bulb Farms is a bit flowery for my tastes. This is what their ad says: "A delicate white tulip awakens and reaches its feathery petals up to the sky. A soft hint of fragrance floats through the air as the early morning sun gives the flower its warmth. That flower is the 'Mondial' Double Tulip, a brilliant white early tulip that Holland Bulb Farms is pleased to present to you. Allow this tulip to grace your garden in early spring and you'll never regret it!"

This one independent daffodil is the only one blooming in a graveyard of hundreds of spent blooms. This is the kind of serendipity a plant lover looks for while walking through the garden--you just never know what you are going to see, even in a patch of dead flower heads.

The daffodils below were found one spring, forgotten and dried out in my aunt's garage. I thought, why not--just stick them in somewhere and see if they will grow. Now, in a rather cold spot behind a rock, they pop up every year. This year their heads were nodding down behind the rock and they could easily have been overlooked. I got down on the ground behind the rock to get this shot! In a yard with about 1000 daffodils now pretty much petering out, I thought these little blooms warranted some attention. I may have their name written down somewhere, but I don't really care. I just like it that they faithfully continue to produce these blooms each April.